Project Freelancer- unknown agents: Alaska
by TryforFirstTry
Summary: Have you ever wondered about the other Freelancers' stories were? Find out another part of Project Freelancer from Agent Alaska, or Miya. (Cover credit goes to my friend)
1. Alaska

"Alaska...? Alaaaska?"

Alaska rolled over under her sheets.

"Alaska? Hey, Miya, come on and get up, won't ya?"

Alaska groaned and lifted her eyelids. A man with gray and red-trimmed armor with a recon helmet and a standard chestplate was standing at the side of her bed.

"Dammit, Ohio. Really?" She sat up and glared at him. He shrugged neutrally and left the room. The door snapped shut behind him, leaving Alaska to stretch out before dragging herself out of her bed. She shuffled over to her armor, rubbing her eyes. She routinely put on her armor, which was white with icy-sapphire highlights. She stared at her scout helmet for a brief moment before putting it on over her face. It reflected her dark skin, hair, and light blue eyes with an orange tint from her visor.

She went out into the labrynthine halls of The Mother Of Invention. She knew her way around fairly well, since she and the other agents had been there for about a quarter of a year. She made her way down to the kitchen for breakfast. She took a tray and grabbed a muffin and a carton of milk. She sat at an empty table. A slender man in completely standard, dark teal armor with steel trim came over to the table, carrying a very cheesy omlet and a glass of tangy orange juice. His strawberry-blond hair was parted across his face and exposed his navy-colored eyes.

"Hey, Alaska," he said, biting into his omlet.

"Hello, Hawaii. How did that strike mission go yesterday, by the way?"

He shrugged and shook his head darkly. "Tennessee got shot up. She wasn't paying attention to her tracker, as usual." He hesitated. "And... I rushed in again. Man, it was bad."

A small, glowing figure popped up above his shoulder. It had a female profile wearing a slim silver bodysuit with sleek black hair and eyes: Hawaii's artificial intelligence unit, Psi.

"At least your systems and biological enhancement stayed intact."

Hawaii had had hypertrophy, or super strength injected into him when he was entered into Project Freelancer and was one of the last people to have biological enhancements given, since a freelancer, Rhode Island had received high vital organ damage done after the medics had tried giving him a healing ability, nearly killing him.

Alaska shuddered thinking about it; she had been due after Rhode, and was still mortified by what had happened to him.

Alaska decided to finally take a bite out of her food and removed her helmet. She bit into the muffin she had selected from the counter, chewing slowly. Ohio approached the table with Washington. She smiled at them as they came closer. Washington's smile was a bit more friendlier than Ohio's, and Alaska felt her neck grow warm. He parted with Ohio to go sit with York, North and South Dakota, Carolina, and Connecticut. Ohio sat across from Hawaii and they began to chat. Alaska finished her food and began to re-read a book that she had brought down to the cafeteria with her. It was an old fictional book that had been published around 1997 and was around 1,375 pages long.

"Readin' those books again, Alaska?" A cheerful voice rang from Alaska's shoulder. She turned aroun to see a woman with long, black hair, soft brown eyes, and was wearing cobalt- and- pink armor. She was carrying her ODST helmet under her arm.

"Yep. You always gotta ask that, Tennessee?" Alaska turned around to the smiling face behind her.

"Hey! Guess what," she said in a sing-song voice.

"What, is it, Tenn?" Hawaii said interestedingly.

"I'm gonna get... an AI!" She was bouncing up and down on her heels in excitement.

"Wow," Ohio said. "Congrats, Tenn!"

They all started to chime their joy for her as another freelancer, who had blue armor and pale yellow accents came over.

"You're getting one, too?" He was somewhat apathetic as usual, resting his head on his fist. His unit, which was dark indigo and wore a hood that half-covered his eyes poked himself out from West's shoulder.

"Speaking of A.I. did you hear about Carolina? She's getting one, too," Zeta said.

Alaska glanced over at Carolina, who was talking to New York. Her vivid red hair and sharp green eyes were visible from the other side of the cafeteria, and she had her cyan armor on. York said something and she started to chuckle.

"Hey, Alaska," West said, "we got a mission to start later. You guys are in, too," he adressed Tennessee, Ohio, and Hawaii. "Kansas is also tagging along."

"Where is he, anyways?" Ohio asked.

"I think he was talking with Maine again," Tennessee replied.

"Well, we may as well go and find him. We should be prepared to start," West said tiredly.


	2. The Mission

Alaska wandered down to the training room, which was where Kansas and Maine normally were when they, for want of a better term, hung out. Kansas, who had yellow and white Mark VI armor, liked to spar with Maine, a white with orange EVA armor clad freelancer, one of the toughest in the entire project; he relied on brute force. Kansas would usually duck and dodge, a specialty of his. He was a very defensive type, and so his armor enhancement suited him well: a more efficient armor lock that reflected whatever offensive force that had been thrown at him.

Alaska turned right down the hallway to the training room, but she had figured that they weren't there since she hadn't heard the sound of metal clanging against metal.

They might be in the locker room, Alaska thought, and she turned on her heel to walk briskly toward the lockers. As Alaska went back up the steps she came from, she heard Kansas' laugh ring out; either he was planning a small prank, or he was joking with Maine in the room in the opposite side of the corridor. Alaska looked around carefully just to make sure it wasn't a prank. Seeing nothing unorthodox, she continued.

Alaska walked in the door to see Kansas chuckling, while Maine scoured the room, all his armor on except for his helmet.

"Rrr... Where'd you put it?" Maine growled at Kansas.

He gave a comical shrug and turned around to see Alaska in the doorway. "Hey. What's up?"

"We've got a mission starting soon, and we need to be ready for briefing." She peered around the room briefly. "And Maine? I think your helmet's behind Wyoming's locker." Then she left.

As she was half- jogging to the debriefing room, she heard Kansas' hurried footfalls coming closer. "Wait up," he said. Alaska stopped and swiveled around and waited for him. Kansas slowed as he came up the inclined hall. He was carrying his helmet under his elbow, and his bangs and very small ponytail were visible, along with his dark brown eyes and palish skin.

"What are we gonna be doing?"

"I dunno. West told just told us about it."

"Who's comin'?"

"Hawaii, West, Tenn, Ohio, and of course us." Alaska counted them off on her fingers. "A six person mission... Wonder what it is."

They walked in silence up the many halls towards the familiar room where they recieved the everyday orders, missions, and other tasks. After about the sixteenth flight of stairs, the two spartans arrived at the door to the room, the other four standing in a group and talking.

After a few minutes, a dark-skinned man in a Mother of Invention crew member suit stepped out. "Is everyone present?" He asked in his casual, flattish voice.

"Yessir," they immediately responded.

"Then please, come in," he said, moving aside politely.

Alaska waited for everyone to enter, Kansas hurriedly putting on his helmet, and followed them in.

"Agents." A voice tinted with a southern accent came from a man with a beard, glasses, gray- flecked hair, and crystal-like green eyes: The Director, Leonard Church.

"There has been suspicion activity in-"

"I can tell them, Counselor."

"Yes, sir," he said with a respective nod.

There has indeed been suspicious activity; possibly Insurrectionist."

The Insurrectionists and Project Freelancer were bitter enemies, though Alaska didn't know the reason why.

"Where at, sir?" She asked

"In the upper parts of the midtown region of The City."

Alaska kept hearing rumors of some agents being sent up there to scout for strange activity and being shot at or nearly captured. If she thought about it, she definitely hadn't seen Alabama in a while, and he'd been sent on a scouting mission.

The Counselor and the Director seemed to have a strange knack to be able to know what someone was thinking, because The Counselor then said, as calmly as ever, "Now, you may have heard of a few missions having gone wrong. We're sorry to say that some of those are true."

Alaska felt her eyes widen and looked across at Ohio, whose arms were tensed in surprise.

"We are asking you to recover two agents we sent out; we reviewed the audio logs in their armor," said The Director. "We believe that they have been captured."

"Which ones, sir?" Hawaii asked, somewhat less controllably than normal.

"Alabama and Colorado."

A 3D graphic model of a very highly hilled and craggy area appeared, holographicly projected on the table they were all crowded around. A medium-sized, fortlike base stood at the very bottom of it all.

"This," The Director said, pointing to a crag with a small cave mouth behind it, "is where our agents were camping. We believe that the cave behind them is connected to an opening near THEIR base somehow."

"We would prefer if you found out while you retrieved our agents as well."

"Attempt to make it to the ridge the others were at." The Director looked around at them all.

"Grab long-distance weapons or viewing equipment, and make sure your armor is functioning perfectly. 4-7-7 will be waiting for you in the hangar. Dismissed." He turned to The Counselor and muttered something to him. He nodded and went to reopen the door.

Alaska went out first, and they all fell into a silent line, descending to the hangar at the very bottom of the Mother of Invention.


	3. The Flight

Alaska stared straight ahead as she and the group made their way downwards to the hangar bay, their steel boots clunking against the floor with every step. She could hear the others talking and making jokes behind her; she turned around and joined them in their laughter &amp; conversation and felt like something that had been weighing her down had lifted.

She hadn't realized the weight was there, but she knew why it had been. When she was younger, she and her brother had been flying to their cousins' hometown, and the plane had lurched down into a sudden nosedive because the controls had "stopped working;" or, at least, that's what the pilots said. She and her brother had been absolutely mortified, but it seemed to have the worse effect on him, as he was reluctant to enter any type of aircraft for about ten years. She, however, had thought of living through it a small adventure, and gave her the love for that sense and for heights; but the reason the weight had been there was her younger brother's panicked face. She always thought about the event before a flight, and hints of worry would start to come to her.

Tennessee knew what she was thinking about. "Ah, c'mon, Alaska, it'll be fine," she said encouragingly with her cheeky little wink.

Alaska couldn't help but make a small grin, but that turned to a frown as she said "Not the air I'm anxious about, Tenn. It's the rock bottom that gets me worried."

Kansas and Hawaii nodded with eachother, even though they were better at things on a solid ground.

"Grounds didn't look ideal, even for scouting without risk," Ohio said, glancing at Alaska.

She rolled her eyes behind her visor.

"The grounds are never just 'IDEAL,' Ohio. If you're gonna scout out something, ya gotta improvise it however ya can if you're gonna succeed." This is what the commanding officer who taught the scouts had once said, and he'd told them to keep it in their minds.

After going down the final set of stairs a huge, wide door was seen. West went over to it and pressed a luminescent button next to it. As the door slid open, a bay was revealed, which had pelicans, hornets, and equipment storage cases for nearly two miles. Their pilot, 4-3-7, was standing by the nearest pelican, with ten sniper rifles, 3 in both hands and the others on the ground.

"Hi, guys," he said in his strange, lightish voice. Alaska bent down and picked up a sniper rifle from the concrete floor of the bay after waving to him. He was a very skillful pilot, the third- best in the entire ship, falling after the entire flight crew of the actual Mother of Invention, and two places behind another pilot, 4-7-9.

The others followed suit. Kansas sharing a joke with 4-3-7 and grabbing the extra rifles after everyone else had grabbed one.

West climbed on first, then Tennessee, Ohio, Hawaii, Alaska, and Hawaii, rolling the sniper rifles across the pelican floor, Kansas vaulted himself into the ship.

"Okay, everyone. Harnesses on, please," 4-3-7's voice came over on the PA. Alaska sat back and listened to the hiss of the metal bars slide down over her chest and abdomen. Alaska glanced around at the others and felt the platform the pelican was on lower into the open dark of space.

Alaska gazed through the small gap of the pelican's closed hatch nothing but velvety black and bright, whitish stars for infinity.

"Okay, everybody... activating hyper engines in 3,"

Alaska lightly gripped her harness.

"2,"

Alaska closed her eyes.

"1,"

A grin spread across her face and her eyes opened with an excited glint.

The engines thrusted forward at about 260 miles-per-hour. She breathed in softly. Even though she was being pressed against the back of the metal backing of her seat, she found herself feeling highly relaxed. Her fellow agents didn't seem to feel the same way, however; Tennessee was clutching her stomach since the excess gravity went near that area. Hawaii was holding his head in his hand from atmospheric pressure, though his helmet was taking care of it for the most part, he seemed prone to headaches in flight. The others fidgeted around akwardly in the harnesses.

"So," said Alaska, hoping to relieve some strangeness, "does anyone know the name of the place we're going?"

"I think it's called... er... Hang on, lemme pull it up," called 4-3-7. "Chorus. We think that the Insurrectionists have been stirring something up between the locals on that planet and another group of mercs. We've sent people out there to do recon, but - I mean, well, that didn't really go as planned, did it?"

Alaska's gaze connected with everyone else's. They were all thinking the same thing: Another group of mercenaries were almost never a good thing.


	4. Arrival

Alaska stared at a few strands of her burgundyish-tinted black hair that had strayed into her eyes. It wasn't like there was much else to do; everyone was too tensed to speak much, and some of the others had difficulty with flight. She jerked her head sideways to get rid of the strands and found herself fiddling with the dogtag she had slung around her neck the previous night and didn't notice until now she was still wearing it. It belonged to her father, who was now incapable of serving for the UNSC; she had one, while her brother, who had been shipped to what she now knew was a training outpost, had the other one.

"Be there in about fifteen minutes, everyone." 4-3-7's voice shook Alaska from a trance she had been in, flipping the tag over and over.

"And also," he said, "a team will come to assist if they're needed to. If you want to call them in, radio the Mother of Invention, and give 'em this number code to confirm it: G268Q4L1."

G268Q4L1, Alaska recited in her mind.

Tennessee rubbed the back of her head; she wasn't the best with codes, but she didn't dare try to write it down. She had been chewed out once after being busted for writing one down. The Director had shouted himself hoarse at her, saying that it could've fallen into enemies' hands, and then they could have been infiltrated and possibly brought down. He had been fuming about it for months.

West nudged her. "You'll be able to remember, Tenn, just calm down."

Alaska leaned back with her arms behind her head and crossed her legs. She may as well get a few seconds of rest while she could, which was something she loved about her helmet: even if her visor was gone or transperent, the only visible part of her face would be her eyes, so an enemy wouldn't be able to see her completely unless they somehow removed her helmet.

"Hey," Ohio muttered, "you gonna be tired all day? How long did you stay up til?"

Alaska merely shrugged. In all fairness, she had gone to sleep around nine, pretty damn early by her standards.

She stared at the parellel seat for the rest of the time, until the pelican's landing systems softly rumbled until they were on the ground. The harnesses all lifted up from over them and she jumped up and grabbed her sniper rifle and vaulted out of the ship. Then she took her first look at Chorus.

Alaska gazed out at the craggy, mountainish landscape below her and the rest of her team. Moss, large groups of tall grass, and somewhat exotic looking plants scattered the hills and an occassional tuft of vines peppered the rocks. It was hard to believe something could be going wrong on a planet like this.

Ohio tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around to face him.

"I think we'll have to go into two groups, split into three, or two into four, since some people are better with reconnaissance. Only you and Kansas are the ones who really have enough experience in scouting to go."

"But," cut in Kansas," maybe we should have the second better one go with the opposite group."

"Hmmmm," Ohio mumbled "I suppose it would work out more disadvantages," he said, rubbing his chin.

"Well, we definitely shouldn't go in three groups," Tenn added. "If one gets attacked, it'll probably be brought down easily."

"Agreed," Hawaii responded. "However, if we split into two, putting four in one group will attract any attention that may have been drawn to us. Then the group of two can radio for help."

"And what happens if they go for the smaller group, the scouts?" inquired Alaska.

"We'd still have one, and would be able to radio in anyways."

Ohio crossed his arms, clearly thinking. "Okay, then Kansas, you're with me, Hawaii, and Tenn."

"Then I guess I'm with you, Alaska,"said West.

"Okay. Then let's get going," Alaska said, throwing two bundles of rope with hooks on their ends to Ohio and slinging one over her own shoulder.


	5. First Experiences

**(Sorry for such a short chapter! I didn't have a whole lot of time to spare when I wrote this, but please do enjoy,)**

Alaska felt her foot slip on the crag where she had wrongly placed her weight and stifled her gasp, clinging to the shady area of the mountain wall they had gone along. She looked to her left at West, who was looking for ways across the wall to the small cave opening about a mile away.

Carefully placing her previously fallen foot on a small ledge, she unlatched the sniper rifle from its holster and peered through its scope.

Her armor's visor made it easier for her to view through it; all helmets had systems to do so automatically with scopes.

"Anything?" said West said to Alaska as quietly as possible.

Alaska scanned the canyon. There was an occassional soldier passing by a stream down below to fill canteens or jugs of water, but not much else activity. The only seemingly suspicious activity from the had been a soldier absentmindedly staring around ridges near them.

Static entered her ears. "We're fine so far," Ohio muttered through the radio. "Potential sniper's nests and low activity. Unlikely they know we're here yet. Continuing to objective spot." His voice came through the system like silk despite his slightly heavy breath.

"Okay. Continue to the spot. West and I will stay on your sixth and let you know if something comes up," Alaska whispered into her microphone.

"Good luck," they said in unison.

She heard the click of her radio and Ohio's disconnect.

She looked through the scope of her rifle again and heard the sound of West positioning himself into a crouch half-hidden behind a large boulder. Alaska turned around to look at his rigid figure to make sure he wouldn't fall. He was gazing intently through his own sniper rifle.

"Hey- hey, might want to look at this," he muttered to her.

She shifted herself to where she was able to see exactly what West was. He pointed to the mouth of the cave and his hand strafed to strangely distorted spots. Alaska took a closer look through her scope.

"Stop!" She said, reestablishing her contact with the recon unit. "Stop! They have cloaked units down there!"

She heard Ohio's voice coming through, but it was broken with static.

"-e -n-. W- s-ped j-st -w."

"Shut down your comm, they're hacking in," West hissed frantically into all their radios.

Alaska started feeling frantic, but felt embarrassment afterwards and calmed herself.

Scouts were used to going ahead and reporting things, but none of them, as far as she knew, had encountered combat, scouting, targeting, or recon with cloaked enemies.

_Keep an eye on your motion tracker!_ she signaled. She wasn't worried if they couldn't understand; Kansas would be able to translate for them.

She gazed through the scope waiting for a reply of some sort and it eventually came in the form of Kansas' arms and hands signaling the message: _Please get to cover; strange activity seen near you! Be ready, and careful! Thanks for the warning._

She turned to face West to see an Insurrectionist soldier, whose cloaking was semi- fading, standing behind him, a knife raised above West, and Alaska's blood ran cold.

He forced the knife down heavily

"Oh, HELL NO!" She yelped. Alaska blocked the soldier's hit and felt the knife plunge into the lightly armored side of her arm. She felt her eyes water from the pain and her eyes clenched together.

"Alaska!" She heard West exclaim, and then a what sounded like a swift jump and hard hit. Alaska found her hand being eased from the wound.

Alaska's arm burned and she looked slightly blurrily at the blood on the hand that had covered the knife's damage.

She became aware of how tired she was feeling.

"I'm fine," she breathed resolutely to West.

The drowsiness now ate at her vision and she closed her eyes.


	6. Small Findings

Alaska opened her eyes to the steady hum of a healing unit that had been modified into her armor and had been recovered by her in a mission and which she had repaired. Even if she hadn't gotten the enhancement, she hadn't wanted to miss out on the ability.

"So," she said to West.

"Hm?"

"Exactly how did he sneak up on us without setting off anything on our trackers?"

He hesitated before saying anything. "I... I dunno..."

West didn't like it when he got confused. It affected him more than most other people, so to say. It could seriously eff with his mind like a paradox introduced to an A.I.

Alaska didn't say anything; it was better not to piss off West -he could kick your ass, even if it might seem like he wasn't able to.

"I'm still endeavoring to find out how he affected our trackers. He was trying to take out the scouts, the smaller group, and the ones who are more or less a bigger threat," Zeta said, appearing in front of her.

"As for the knife wound, you're lucky it missed your bone or it would have snapped through it. The healing unit's work is nearly done and no permenant damage will be received but a scar on both sides of your arm." He raised his chin.

"However, no internal tissue damage has been made." His small form shrunk into a bright, dark indigo flash for a brief second and he went back to hovering over West's shoulder.

The healing unit's pulsing slowed as it shut down and Alaska pivoted her arm; it was amazing how they had pieces of technology that could do these things. Just a couple hundred years ago, someone might have died from the blood loss of something like that without a trained medical officer on hand.

She walked over to the Insurrectionist scout, crouching over his armored form. She grunted and was about to turn around when she saw a flash under the shadow of a rock.

Alaska reached over, fingering the sharp metal of the dropped knife. For some reason, in her head, something was telling Alaska that the small blade felt right in her hands.

"What is it? You find something good over there, Alaska?"

"Hm? Er- no, nothing really. All he seemed to have on him was this knife." She held it up by the blade to show him.

"You may as well keep that. Might come in handy some time."

Alaska nodded and hitched the knife to the side of her leg armor. She proceeded to retrieve the sniper rifle she had abandoned to block the Insurrectionist's hit and prepared to set up with the scope.

"No." West told her. "One of us needs to make sure we're not crept up on again. And as you're the one that has a weapon that doesn't require ammo or make that much noise..."

"But we should probably get going, as it is. The assholes down there will wonder where their friend's gone."

West stared at her as though she had spoke mindlessly. "To where, exactly?" He scoffed.

"Anywhere but here," Alaska retorted.

"Without being able to securely notify the Recon Unit?"

"You got a better idea?"

"How about sticking to protocol?!"

"Eff the protocol! There's no 'protocol' in a fight!"

"That's insubordination, Alaska-"

"Well, then, what's the protocol for this little 'situation' here?!"

Their faces were three inches away from eachother; Alaska and West's eyes were narrowed in angry glares. Alaska took in a deep breath and said as calmly as she could,

"Listen. The Recon Unit should be able to communicate with us via Kansas' knowledge of scout signs. If trouble comes up for us, I'm sure we can manage."

West merely took a halfstep backwards and crossed his arms.

"I suggest we make our way downwards and try monitoring Recon's progress towards the objective and collect as much information as possible."

West uncrossed his arms and looked down at Alaska and she looked resolutely up at him.

"That is, unless you have a better idea," she said.

"Hrrr... Okay. Fine." And he went to retrieve the gear.

_West _really_ doesn't like being proven wrong_, Alaska thought with a small smirk.

He came back and, after looking at Alaska, gave her a small, joking sideways shove and jumped down to the lower ledge, safely hidden behind a stalactite. Alaska followed suit, grasping to the unexposed side of the stalactite. She dropped to the ground and heard not one, but two soldiers, and it sounded as though they were dragging something.

She turned around to see the sounds of foot falls coming from two Insurrectionists, the third figure, in gray and red armor, stuggling between them.

West was hiding behind a boulder, crouching. Alaska's hand made its way to the knife she took and she looked at the blue- pale yellow clad soldier beside her, who nodded.

Alaska rushed forward soundlessly while preparing to slide the knife across both the soldiers' light- armored necks, her arm extending all the way back.


	7. Retrieving

Alaska swung her arm forward.

It hit the first soldier, but the second one, having been alerted ducked under the knife as it came at him. He grabbed her arm, stopping it, and Alaska knew that under his helmet, he was smirking. She growled and dug her knee into his stomach, twisting her arm in his grasp. The other soldier's fist came out from the air and hit made contact with her forearm, though she didn't feel it very much. West came pounding up from behind her and bashed the butt of his sniper rifle against the Insurrectionist's visor, making a crack completely down its side.

Ohio slammed his free elbow into the same Insurrectionist grappling with Alaska, making his grasp dialate enough to get Alaska's knife directable.

She danced away from the soldier's heavy attacks, and twisted the knife into a jabbing position while bolting back at him. She slid to the right of his kicks and embedded the knife directly into his lower spine.

Ohio finally wriggled free as West came, placing a muffler over his rifle. Ohio pulled on the soldier's arm, making him stumble. He crashed it over his knee, shattering the bone.

The soldier started to yell, but was quieted by West's silent killing shot in the heart.

Ohio was crouched on one knee, searching the unconscious Insurrectionist's body, while Alaska retrieved her knife from the dead solier's back.

"Why were you with them?" West inquired Ohio. "Is the rest of your squad okay?"

Ohio froze in the middle of putting his sniper rifle back into its holster.

"I went ahead of the group," he said embarrassedly. "I told them the rest of the group was to the right of this area when they attacked me, but I don't think they believed me. As far as I know, they were the only two up there. I'd been watching your scuffle with the guy that'd been behind West."

"Is that where you got it, Alaska?" He said, pointing at the small blade in Alaska's hands. She nodded.

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"Well, I mean, we've probably blown our cover, but, can't complain," he said sardonically.

West groaned. "Ohio..."

A loud volley of shots came from a far ridge; it sounded like an SMG. Shots from three sniper rifles sounded audibly in the still air.

"Oh, hell- Hawaii! Tenn! Kansas!" Alaska shouted. She and Ohio started forward, but skidded to a halt at West's shout of, "Wait!"

Alaska turned, a glare appearing. Was he seriously about to start that "listen to protocol" rant of his again? While the others were probably being killed?

He grabbed an assault rifle from the dead soldier, saying with a devilish tone that Alaska had never heard before, "Not without me." His helmet glinted as he ran forward.

He sprinted ahead of Alaska and Ohio, both of them staring incredulously after him, then at eachother before rushing after him.

They ran in silence, West staying in front at all times with unexpected speed. Alaska knew that people's systems reacted when extra adrenaline ran through their bodies, but West, this was something else entirely. One second he's his typical, apathetic, slightly short- tempered self, and now he was blowing through the craggy mountain paths, jumping flawlessly over gaps, scaling the walls of the mountain, and going against protocol.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Alaska said to herself.

_What_ **_we're_** _doing_, she corrected.


	8. Attack

Alaska's breath caught in her chest as she scrambled across the ledges as silently as she could while still going fast enough to keep up with West. Ohio panted for his own, slightly behind her.

Alaska felt her feet cross over one another, causing her to stumble. Ohio glanced over at her.

"It's fine," she said dismissively. "As long as we get to the others, it'll be fine."

Ohio looked at her for another second or so, then straight ahead once more. Alaska started to make longer strides instead of trying to pound on the ground as hard as she could to save a bit of energy.

Then she felt a hand fly across her chestplate, stopping her. West was peering around the corner of the shady crevice they had been sprinting along. Alaska detatched her rifle from her back as Ohio slipped over, doing the same with his. West finally turned around.

"Kansas and Tennessee are up there, holed up. Four Insurrectionists looking for 'em."

He tossed a muffler to Ohio and made a gesture to him: get ready.

Ohio went to West, who had his sniper rifle propped on his knee. Ohio lifted his against his shoulder and peered through the scope. Alaska's hand made its way to the knife once again.

There was a long moment of silence. Then the sounds of two faint chinks and sounds of fast wind through the air as they fired their weapons.

"Damnit!" One person shouted.

"Cover me!" yelled another voice. It was deep, and coldish, and sounded filtered, but natural at the same time; it made Alaska uneasy for some reason.

"From what?" The other voice shouted, his voice glazed with sarchasm.

"You know what I mean," the deeper-voiced man said. "At least go take care of our friends up there. We have our orders!"

"I'll take care of our pals over _here,_" the other said devilishly.

"Fine," the other replied, starting to lose control over his voice.

Alaska heard rapid footsteps coming their way. She came over, and pushed West out of the way, adjusting her legs in a typical fighting stance, and held her knife in the most defensive position she could.

"Get behind me and try to use your fists instead of your rifles."

The sound of running continued and came closer, constantly gaining volume.

Alaska pressed her arm against the wall, readying herself.

Finally, the footsteps slowed to a halt. The rock beside her that Ohio and West had fired from suudenly was forced off the ledge. Alaska attempted to dig her knife into the soldier's chest. Once again, her arm was stopped, but this soldier seemed to be something else completely. He had gone under her arm, grabbed it with one of his, taken a knife of his own from his arm- piece, and managed to get it directly in front of her esophagus. Alaska turned as slightly as she could to get a look at him.

A steel-gray and dark green person wearing a scout helmet with a void-black visor stared back at her. His chestplate and the armor on his arms were unfamiliar to Alaska, and how calmly he weilded his knife unnerved her. Alaska tried to stamp on his foot; he merely kicked her other foot from underneath her as the others came forward to attack.

He turned around and made a sliding motion away from a kick Ohio aimed at his stomach and rushed forward again, crashing his elbow down into his back.

_This guy isn't just some Insurrectionist_, Alaska thought. _Was he one of those mercs they mentioned?_

Alaska got up off her back and made another dash at the merc. West was attacking his front as well as he could, but every time he punched, the merc would exchange them with him or block it, no matter how hard or rapidly he threw his punches.

Alaska threw all her weight onto the soldier, tackling him and forcing him to the ground. He struggled from under her as she held him down by his upper arms. He rasied his knee and it made contact with her chest; Alaska winced and punched him across his face, but not to very much effect. He grabbed her raised arm, and rolled out from her while she was still holding on to his chestpiece.

He got up and pounded his heel into her stomach continually, Alaska hearing cracks within her ribcage, until Ohio smashed his unarmored neck with the barrel of his rifle.

He whipped around, sliding out his knife from the clearly modified arm-piece he was using.

Alaska pulled herself up, but saw a sloppy motion from West: _Stop! This one's mine._

She nodded and began to run her healing unit inside her armor, watching the ongoing fight between the unknown soldier and Ohio, both of them blocking, kicking, punching, dodging, elbowing, ducking, and jumping skillfuly.

Then West jumped down on the soldier, Ohio rolling away, and pummeled him wherever and however he could and weaving around his hits until the soldier was still. Not dead, merely unconscious.

Ohio came over to Alaska tiredly. She offered him a shoulder, but he shook his head. He took another step forward, and started to drop. She held him up by his chest armor, and saw that he had taken the worse end of a beating from the soldier, not having dodged of blocked most of his attacks after all. She quickly gathered up her healing unit and placed it beside him. She propped him against the wall and heard him give a quick mutter of thanks. Then his head fell onto his chest as he fell asleep. She ran around the corner to see West with his arms crossed, glaring at the ridge Alaska knew Tennessee and Kansas had been.

He punched a rock jutting out of the wall, shattering it.

"We almost had them," he growled.


	9. Deja Vu

"Alaska," West said angrily, "get Ohio ready. We need to move before the guy that got Kansas and Tennessee gets us."

"What about Hawaii? Any signs of him?"

He shook his head. "None."

Alaska brought her hand up to his shoulder, squeezing it slightly. He slumped his side against the rough mountain wall, his head drooping for a second. Then he suddenly stood up straight with a newly rested aura around him.

"I'll go get Ohio," he said. "Look for anything that might help us, or see if you can spot Kansas, Tenn, Hawaii, or more information on our friends."

Alaska nodded and he came over, nudging her and said, "Y'know; the protocol."

She grinned and gave him a small slug in the arm and started making her way up to a suitable ridge. "Might take a while to revive him -he seemed pretty tired," she called behind her.

Alaska concealed herself in a close-growing thicket and set her sniper rifle in front of her. She peered through the scope from her flattened position down at the camplike fort below them, focusing more on the soldiers than the actual base. She zoomed in as much as she could and squinted her opened eye tightly to see better.

Getting a well look, she saw that these soldiers looked different from Insurrectionist after all; their was dark, steely gray, but didn't have the same rubine trim Insurrectionists' did. Their visors, like Insurrectionists', were an opaque light-gray, though the helmets, Alaska realized, the helmets she had never seen Insurrectionists wear.

A thought struck her, something that hadn't before. The cloaked soldiers on the ridge - the science geeks that worked in the labs had recently developed something like that. Were they somehow stealing technology from them?

Alaska lowered her rifle. "West," she called.

She waited, but there was no reply.

"West," she called louder.

Still nothing. Was he still trying to revive Ohio?

"West!" Alaska yelled. Nothing came, and a sick feeling swooped in her stomach.

She scramled to her feet, and jumped down from the small ledge she'd been hiding at. Her hand gripped the barrel and trigger of her weapon so tightly she was making the protective black gloves make a quiet sound that reminded her of leather getting stretched.

She crept towards the corner where Ohio and West were - or at least, where they should be.

Alaska sidestepped around the corner, raising her rifle.

The scout-helmeted soldier was gone, along with West. Ohio was still propped against the wall, the healing unit running beside him. She ran over to him, fear darting around her mind.

"Ohio!" She practically yelled. She placed her hands on either one of his shoulders and shook him. His head raised, but when it did, he didn't stare at her; his face was directed above her.

Alaska didn't waste any time with turning around; instead, she made a darting motion to her left, raising her sniper rifle as she did so.

Another soldier was dissolving into view; he also must've had a cloaking unit. He wearing a helmet with no visor to be seen and was standing in front of her, arm holding up the other that had attacked them.

A deep, cold, slightly filtered-sounding scoff escaped from his helmet.

"I can't believe you let yourself be beaten," he said to his ally he was supporting.

He turned around, aware that Alaska was watching him. "And as for you, _soldiers_, I suggest all of you get lost before we show you out ourselves."

"Where's our other guy?" Alaska said harshly.

A humorless laugh rumbled from his helmet. It intimidated Alaska, hearing something so calm after that question, like the unconscious soldier's knife-wielding skill.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you," he replied coldly.

"What, too _against protocol _for you?" Gasped his partner sardonically.

"Yes," he snapped. "Yes, actually, it is."

"Goddamnit," Alaska shouted, positioning her rifle so that it was directed where the deeper voiced soldier's forehead would be. "Tell me!"

The one being supported chuckled. "Sure. We'll even invite you into our base, let you meet everyone."

"Shut it," the other told him dangerously.

The sounds of scuffling reached Alaska's ears from a lower level of the maze of rocky ledges.

"That's him, isn't it?" She said, relief trickling over some of her fear.

"It appears we're meeting some resistance," the strange-helmeted one said.

"Tell you what," he said, looking to Alaska and Ohio. "I'll let the both of you live for a while longer while I go remedy your friend. If you attempt to resist in any way, we will kill all of the "agents" you've sent out here, including you two."

Alaska knew she couldn't fight off both of them, but that didn't stop her from feeling the urge to fight. She turned to stare at Ohio, who had gotten up from the wall and walked beside her while the two steel-and-green soldiers had been talking to her.

Ohio stared back for a few moments, then shook his head.

"We agree to the terms," Ohio said defeatedly before Alaska could say anything. She lowered her head beside him, silently fuming even though she knew it was slightly selfish of her for wanting to fight when others' lives were on her shoulders. She slowly put the rifle back into its holster.

"Good," the deep-voiced soldier said. Then he went off as quickly as he could while still half- supporting his ally.

Alaska let her knees give way, and stayed sitting on her feet. She clutched her head with one of her hands, her other one resting her leg loosely.

Ohio stared at the ground in what seemed to be shame and sat with his arms around his legs. Then he lifted his head up to the sky that was poking out from the thick mountain crags.

"Y'know," he said strangely. "I think it might be time for a bit of help."

Alaska stared at him, her grimace of surprise lightening slightly. She got up to her feet, a new feeling of determination flaring in her chest.

"I think you just might be right about that," she said.


	10. Contact

"Have you gotten through, yet?" Ohio asked for the millionth time.

Alaska dropped the thin wires she had been trying to hook together in annoyance as they shocked her and turned to face Ohio.

"Listen," she said, shaking her hand to return some feeling to it. "I think I can get it. I just have to wire something in to mess with the channels, so that whoever they are can't listen in; that was the reason we stopped using the radios to contact eacother in the first place."

She placed her hands on her hips and stared agitatedly at Ohio, then went back to configuring their radio's wiring, threading the thin pieces of metal through the channeling systems. She took a deep breath, trying to even out her anger.

Static started to echo through the small speaker of the portable radio, along with unclear talk.

"I think I've got a signal," she said. "But it's faltering."

Ohio came over and pressed his ear against the speaker. "No- no, I think it's clearing up! Keep doing whatever you're doing, Alaska- I think I can almost make out whatever those people are saying..."

She weaved the wire she was using through and around the radio's cables, also starting to be able tp make out the garbled speaking.

Alaska stopped at a half-clear signal, shaking her head at Ohio. "That's as much as I dare to mess with this thing; if I tinker with it any more, I'll probably fry the comm systems on it."

Ohio bent his head lower to the radio speaker as Alaska held the backing panel onto the radio and listened closely herself, hoping against hope that they had established secure contact.

Ohio started to play around with the radio's aerial, twitching it to the right, then to the left, listening to the static levels. He started moving it slowly to the middle, the signal starting to clear. He nudged it slightly to the right, where it seemed to be the least static-filled.

"Hello." Ohio called into the radio. "Is anyone listening?"

More static replied.

"Are we transmitting?" Alaska asked into it.

A strange but familiar, lightish voice peaked through the static.

"He-lo?" It said. "Plea-e i-entif- yourse-f."

"Go on," Ohio muttered. "Say something."

Alaska pressed the communication button down and spoke into the transmitter.

"This is Agent codename: Alaska. Do you read?" She responded. She was confident that the speaker was 4-3-7, but she still felt as though she wasn't sure if she should be replying.

The signal became slightly clearer; 4-3-7 must have boosted the signal from their end.

"We rea- you, Alaska. Please cont-nue."

"We need assistance, ASAP. Only Ohio and myself have not been caught. All other units have been apprehended by the enemy- and they aren't Insurrectionist. Confirmation code," Alaska said, wracking her brain."G268.. Q4L1."

A silence filled the air, apart from an occassional spurt of static.

"Copy that, Ala-a. We will sen- r-enforceme-ts as qu-ckly as we can," 4-3-7's voice came from the speaker slowly.

Ohio gripped the crevice wall in relief. Alaska got up from her knees and shut down the radio.

"I suppose we just wait now?"

Ohio looked over at her. "No," he said. "We should either set out to the place we got dropped off at," he pointed to the shady, plant covered platform of rock they'd arrived at. "Or we should start looking for areas to scan their base down there."

Alaska unholstered her sniper rifle in response and edged her way across the crevice they had been in. She crouched down stubbornly and looked through the scope of it for what felt like the hundreth time that mIssion.

She stayed that way for a minute or so until she felt a hand lightly grab her shoulder.

"I know you're concerned," Ohio said gently from behind her. "But we'll get them back; all of them. West, Kansas, Hawaii, Tenn, Alabama, Colorado, I swear."

Alaska felt something catch in her throat and she lowered her rifle. It wasn't exactly that she had been feeling sadness before; she had felt enraged- fuming. But now that Ohio was trying to comfort her, she felt the rage fall into a flatter emotion. The glare that had been on her face ever since the suggestion for help faded, and her thinned, annoyed eyes turned back to their normal, wide selves as she felt as though her stomach was plummeting to the canyon's base.

Her head lowered slowly, along with her anger at their inconveniences. She thought she felt something warm and wet slide down her cheek.

"I'm-" she started to say, but stopped. She wasn't fine; and she didn't care if she was.

"What if we don't?" Her voice trembled. "What if we don't find them? And I don't mean the Director's reaction. I-" she stopped talking completely, afraid that if she uttered another word, her mind would fall apart as her head started to pound.

She clutched her head, holding it up. Her eyebrows knitted together under her helmet and she sighed, closing her eyes.

"We will. Just trust me," Ohio said, briefly gripping her shoulder.

Alaska's eyes flew open, her negative emotions coverting into something more determined.

Ohio's hand left her shoulder as she slowly got up from her knee.

"Let's go," he said, offering her his hand.

"What, you don't think I can manage?" She responded.

They looked at each other for a short moment, then Alaska sprinted forward with a glance at Ohio, running behind her. She felt a small grin spread across her face, and looked forward, repeating Ohio's words in her head.

_Just trust me._


	11. Courtesy Call

**(Sorry this took so long; had something to deal with and was busy; hope you enjoy anyways!)**

Alaska skidded to a halt at the edge of the ridge she had been running across, sliding slightly on a small patch of moss growing from the wall, her scout chestplate rising and falling with her heavy breath. She watched pebbles skip off the huge gap in front of her. She turned around at the sound of Ohio's quickened footfalls

He came forward quickly, faltering to a stop beside her. His chest, too going up and down, a bit slower than Alaska's. His helmet swiveled from her, to the large gap,and the ledge that was across from them.

Alaska took six steps backwards, gesturing for Ohio to move. He complied instantly, knowing what she was about to do. She bent down, preparing to start sprinting.

She stayed in the position for a second longer, then lunged forward with the most force she could muster from her back leg, giving her a small boost in her speed.

She bounded off the ledge, slightly falling short and grabbed hold of the other ridge. She grunted, pulling herself up by her arms and lifted one of her dangling legs onto it and then the other. She stared across at Ohio, panting slightly from the effort of lifting herself up. She nodded for him to do the same.

He turned around, prepared for the worst and started off in the opposite direction, taking ten large paces, casting what Alaska knew was a skeptic look at her.

He bent over briefly, then bolted towards the end of the ledge she had previously been on.

A brief shout escaped from him as he jumped off somewhat ungracefully, barely being able to clutch the ridge. He looked down over his shoulder at his dangling limbs and the distant ground.

Alaska knelt down, offering him her hand. He looked up and raised his other arm, accepting her help. She pulled on his hand, grasping it with both of hers, her arms straining to lift him up onto the ledge in his heavy armor. She heard Ohio scrambling up, his arms appearing over the edge with his Recon helmet, then his chestplate. His now available arm rose onto the ledge, starting to help himself up.

He pushed himself over the ridge, Alaska removing her hand from his after he lurched onto it. She turned to face the rest of the ledge, looking for the plant-covered, shadowy area that was tucked farther back into the canyon than the rest of the walls. and half-concealed by vegetation.

"Alright. just need to scale about five more yards across, then make our way up," she said as she glanced at Ohio.

Ohio stared back at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Alaska-" he started tentavely. He paused, seeming not to know how to put his next words. He uncrossed his arms, saying, "nevermind. Let's get going."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes under her helmet; she hated it when people didn't finish their statements. "Go on, Ohio. What?"

"Hm? Nothing," he said, striding past her. She glared after him as he started to scale the thin crevice, his gray armor half-blending with the shadowy walls.

He made it slyly to the thicker end of the cravice and slipped behind a boulder.

Alaska gave a sharp gasp as loud waves of static started to engulf her ears from her helmet's radio. She clasped her head with her hands and fell to her knees as the sound filled her head, reverbrating in her ears. She made a noise that resembled a growl as the noise of static swept over her. She caught a glimpse of Ohio, who was stumbling around behind the boulder, his hands over the place his ears were under his helmet.

"Reinforcements inbound!" 4-3-7's voice said, draining out the static. "Alaska, Ohio, please get back to the entry point of the mission."

For a moment, all she heard was herself growling as she lowered her hands from her head. A quick look at Ohio told her that he was also recovering, likely from the same incident she had experienced. She got up, staring at the sky for signs of the help 4-3-7 had radioed in about.

She looked ahead once more, and ran across the thin piece of rock less-than-cautiously. Ohio was already going up. "I think I found a quicker way over," he called over his shoulder, quickly looking down at Alaska.

"I'll continue this way," she replied, sprinting across the crevice, which was slowly starting to look more vegetated.

"Careful!" she heard him yell after her speeding form.

She bent forward farther to carry herself faster without a backwards glance at him. She would be able to move faster now that she was by herself.

_I could even do a bit of scouting_, she thought, starting to reach for her sniper rifle. Then she shook her head, lowering her hand; she had her orders- to get to the reinforcements. A small groan burst from her mouth- she was starting to sound like West.

She continued to dart across the rocky surface, her breath starting to become heavier. She would glance up at her targeted area, which was quickly becoming nearer and nearer.

Alaska came across another raggedy, slightly smaller gap in the way, but ran on at it without stopping. She bounded over it with a small grunt and sprinted onward, keeping what a now constant eye on the rocky platform, which she could now see slight movement on. Her breath was slowly becoming more ragged as she bolted on.

She pushed her way through clumps of taller-growing grass on some rough dirt of the ledge, tripping, her quickness combined with low, thick roots.

Her armor caused her to slide a few inches forward, kicking up dust in front of her. She slowly put up her arm to push herself up when she heard a voice above her say, " Found you."


	12. The New Agents On Chorus

Alaska looked up at the armored hand being offered to her, which was goldenrod-yellow. She accepted it, being assisted to her feet and looked at the soldier, who she was now eye- level with; he was wearing standard Mark VI chestplate and helmet, but hayabusa armor, which was reddish- orange, on his upper arms.

"Holding up fine, Alaska?"

She pulled her hand back from his grasp before replying to him.

"Pretty well," she said sardonically. "We got attacked, and almost everyone in the units have been apprehended, but I mean, what're ya gonna do?"

_Damn_, she thought. _I'm starting to sound like that other guy. The one that was kind of an ass._

The yellow soldier shook his head. "Well, come on," he said, waving for her to follow. "The others are waiting for you and Ohio."

"What, we taking too long for you guys?"

"Like you're any better," he chuckled, starting to jog in the direction of the rocky platform. "A shortcut's over here,"he added, going to the left into a small passage that they would have to crouch down slightly to make it through and that was covered by a large tuft of plants.

"After you," he said, pulling aside the plants that covered the opening. Alaska bent down and entered it, slowly starting to make her way through after raising her hand to her helmet and turning on her flashlight that was built into her helmet. She heard the rustle of foliage from behind her as the other freelancer entered behind her.

"So what happened to you guys?" he asked after a while of them going through nothing but dark stone of the small cavelike area.

Alaska's eyebrows furrowed somewhat angrily under her helmet. She took a breath to steady her voice before she spoke.

"Tennessee and Kansas were captured by an unknown soldier while West, Ohio and I were taking care of one of his allies. As for Hawaii, I don't know. And what happened to West, you would have to ask Ohio; but he wasn't fully conscious when I came to him since I'd activated a healing unit after he got torn up in the fight, so he might not know or remember."

A long silence passed between them, Alaska starting to fume silently as she always did when she was aggrivated, or like West when things didn't make sense to him, and gave a 'tchah!' of anger.

"How many others are there?" She asked him, glancing from side to side of the walls of the cramped space that was visible by her helmet's light.

"Well, there's me, then there's Jersey-" His sentence was cut short as the ground beneath Alaska and himself started to shift, leaning to the left, then to the down rapidly. "Go!" He yelled at her; she didn't need telling twice.

"The ground layer is too thin for our combined armor weight," she called to him, her helmet's light swinging around as she ran, keeping her head ducked down.

The exit was growing closer to them as they bolted, the ground becoming cracked as they ran over it. Alaska reached up to her helmet once more and switched her light off as she went.

"Wait." he said from behind her. She swiveled around to see him trying to tug his leg from a crack in a stronger patch of stone it had gotten stuck in.

"Dammit," he cursed as he pulled his leg slightly out of the rock. "Dammit."

Alaska came over and crouched down to the floor. "How in hell," she said, "did you manage to do _this_?"

She grabbed his ankle and tried yanking it from the rock as he tried tugged on it himself.

"At least the floor's not cracking behind us anymore," he said brightly. Alaska rolled her eyes and pulled his leg upwards as hard as she could.

He made a somewhat high-pitched yelp as Alaska forced his leg out of the crack, slipping onto the wall. She turned around, staring at him as she continued to the exit. He rubbed his lower leg with one of his hands, putting up his index finger with his other. She stopped and crossed her arms against her chest.

"Are you okay?"

"Just- just a sec," he said, holding his ankle for a second more, then walking unevenly to her, his left leg having a small limp. As he became even with her, she put her arm under his and supported him on his left side.

"Suppose you do have a point: the ground isn't cracking behind us. But how in the world did you manage to get your leg stuck in there?"

He chuckled and shrugged with his right shoulder. "It was just an accident, I s'pose."

Sunlight flooded her eyes as they stepped out of the cavelike passage and she stood straight once more. Stepping out also revealed a spartan with completely standard armor that was lavender with red highlights sitting on a small boulder. The soldier looked up as they came and greeted them warmly.

"Alaska! Vermont! There you two are!"

"Huh. So, are you the reason Ohio's and my helmet radios started to static up, Jersey?"

She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry - I didn't know if we had a secure connection, so Mu and I sent out static waves across all the radios in the area." She shifted guiltily. "But we were the reason you two and we on the Mother of Invention could even talk on a safe channel. The rewiring someone did to the radio you guys used was extremely sloppy."

Alaska let go of Vermont and shrugged. "Well, we had to make do with what we had! Not like I had proper tools, either. Just a couple of wires and a small screwdriver."

"You guys beat us, huh?"

Another soldier, almost completely clad in red E.V.A armor and a Mark VI helmet and bright yellow highlights was approaching, Ohio close behind him.

Oregon crossed his arms and scanned the vegetated area; he seemed to have been looking for something. "Hey, where's-" he was cut off as a yelp came from behind tall plantage to the right of them all.

"There he is," said Vermont.

A soldier in gray-and-yellow Mark VI armor tripped out of the foliage and gazed up at them all. Alaska's neck grew warm when he looked at her.

"Oh, hey. Everyone's here?" He said in a somewhat conversational voice that didn't mask the nervousness in it.

"Yes, Wash." Jersey said. "What were you even doing over there, anyways?"

"Er- nothing, really," he said.

"Where's your sniper rifle, Wash?" Vermont asked him.

He reached to his back for his rifle, and unholstered it. "Here. Why?"

"Just had to check," Vermont replied jokingly.

Washington put his sniper rifle back in its holster, his hands going automatically to his battle rifle that never seemed to leave his side.

"Well, let's get going then," Jersey said, standing up and adjusting the armor on her forearms. She walked over to the ledge and placed her hands on her hips, waiting for the rest of them. Oregon went over to her, then Vermont. Alaska glanced at Ohio, who shrugged, and then joined them, and Alaska followed him. They all stared at Wash, who stood still, clutching his battle rifle. His gaze flitted between all of them.

"C'mon, Wash," Oregon said flatly. "We all have to do this."

"Wait," said Alaska. "What _are _we doing, exactly?"

"We're taking... for want of a better word... a shortcut." Oregon responded.

A look of concern etched Alaska's figures. No wonder Wash was so damn anxious about this.

"What?" Ohio said. "Are you fuckin' serious?"

"Yes," Oregon said darkly.

"It'll be _just fine_," Jersey said to them.

_Probably don't even have a choice anyways_, Alaska thought negatively. She groaned and faced the edge of the cliff adamantly.

"That's the spirit, Alaska," She told her.

"Please- don't patronize me, Jersey," she said back.

"Whatever you say," she said. "Let's go by ourselves if the rest of them aren't _tough enough _to handle this." She handed her one end of a rope with the other end tied around a large and thick tree trunk.

Jersey gave her a small salute, then, with a rope of her own in one hand, she jumped down over the edge. Alaska looked at the others and, with a joking wave, she followed suit.


	13. Starting A Fight

Alaska felt the wind rushing past her as she and Jersey plummeted, holding tightly onto the cord she had been handed. She glanced farther along at Jersey, who was in a spread-eagle while she herself was in a diving position, limbs snapped together.

The air struck against her armor as they went lower and lower, Vermont and Ohio appearing in the corners of her vision.

Jersey looked up at, what Alaska knew was, the four of them falling silently down to the ground. She made a motion with her right hand that Alaska understood: _Find cover as soon as we land._

Jersey's figure transitioned into a straight dive, making her fall faster. Alaska saw Ohio's and Vermont's positions change also and come closer into her line of view before she adjusted her dive into a parallel angle, the air whipping harder against her armor.

The ledges, crags, ridges and crevices flew past in rushes of colors as the ground approached faster and faster, Alaska and the group still gripping their thick,orangey-brown cords.

Jersey's suddenly tightened, and she swung with it to a ledge near her, then ran off to find a safe area.

Alaska's abruptly stopped, and she flipped off to a lower crevice. She saw Ohio and Vermont land as theirs tightened, Vermont going to the ledge above her after he waited for his cord to recoil. She sprinted across to a thin, wall-like mound of rock attatched to the crevice, and heard the faint creaking sound of two coils stiffening, and the noise of a pair of feet land near her. She looked to her left to see Oregon getting up from his knee.

He looked back, noting her presence. "Oh. You're already here."

"No need to sound so dissappointed," she replied.

"C'mon; Let's go meet back up with Jersey- wherever the hell she's gone."

She gestured farther left and down to the ridge she had landed on. "After you," she offered.

He walked briskly forward, Alaska following closely in silence.

Nothing was said for a while as they descended, occassionally jumping to a lower ledge.

"You do realize the Director'sprobably gonna be pissed, right? In fact, we weren't even supposed to come if the activity around here wasn't Insurrectionist." Oregon finally told her.

"What?!" exclaimed Alaska. "Then- wait, why- how are you here?"

He didn't reply for a bit. "4-3-7- I guess he lied, because we were told it was Insurrectionist ."

"4-3-7?"

"That, or the Director did; they may not have screened your transmission because it was so sloppy. Jersey said he... called her over, and had her tinker with something and make the channel 'as secure as possible.'"

Alaska stared at him bemusedly. "Damn," she said in surprise.

"That's exactly what I said," he agreed.

They continued, Vermont waving up at them from a hole in the crevice in a lower ledge as he ran by. Oregon and Alaska's paces quickened to sprints.

"I still can't believe 4-3-7 would lie; he's usually so honest- even when he doesn't want to. So weird..." she muttered to herself.

"Hm?" Oregon said as they leapt down to Vermont's ledge and continued to sprint onwards.

"Nothing," she said hastily as Vermont came into view around the corner for a brief moment.

She started to run faster to avoid further conversation, pondering what they were going to do once they met with Jersey.

She slowed a bit."Do you know what we're going to do?"

He shook his head. "All we know is that you and Ohio are the only two that evaded whoever these people are."

Alaska didn't reply and a sick, unsettled feeling was descending to her stomach; she knew what he would ask next, and she didn't want to answer him.

"What exactly ha-"

"All I know is that a pair of dark green and gray soldiers attacked us, one of which had a cloaking unit," she cut him short. "We belive one of the soldiers that came for us- possibly apprehending West while he was helping his ally- got hold of Tenn and Kansas. Hawaii is an unknown case, however. Ask Ohio; I'm not sure about it."

"Ah," he said, slightly in regret. "Sorry."

She merely grunted and continued running, once more gathering speed to avoid talking to him. She wished that people, including herself, weren't so curious.

_How long are they going to keep this up? _Alaska thought aggrivatedly. _Exactly what were they going to do?_

She kept going forward, Vermont coming into her view, both of them kicking up an orangish, thin layer of dust behind them. She sped past the yellow-and-red figure that he was, and slipped down to the area she's seen Jersey land on, scanning the area for her lavender form.

She stopped short, however, at the familiar sound of a single shot of a magnum and then a short, loud yell. The sound of a fussilade of bullets came from the base, a few yards away.

"Oh my God..." she said quietly, a sick feeling swooping through her stomach. " What in hell is going on?"

She quickly whipped out her sniper rifle, and hastily looked through its scope, muttering, "Oh God... oh, God..."

She saw bullets flying eastward from the steel and frosty-visored soldiers, and a small row of returning fire if she looked closely.

Then came the Warthog.

It flew over the main attackers, rumbling to a land and squealed as it turned to face them. A navy blue and white soldier was in the driver seat, while a cobalt-colered and red accented on was clinging to the windshield with one hand, a rifle in the other, adjusting himself. But they weren't the only frendlies down there, it soon transpired; a dark gray and yellow spartan ran to the vehicle in the sheilding from bullets it offered him and continued to fire as he poked out.

Then Jersey's form jumped off from a ledge lower than Alaska's, and she began to fire from her assault rifle at their adversaries skillfully. Alaska swiveled her own weapon towards the attackers, looking for two in particular: the scout-helmeted and the deeper voiced one.

"Come on! We gotta go!" Vermont yelled from behind her.

"Just a second-"

"No! We need to be down there now- Alabama, Colorado, Jersey, and Wash might not be able to hold out for that long."

She looked from him to her sniper rifle, finger still tightly gripping the trigger. She shortly looked through the scope again as she started to run along. The crosshairs lined up across a small clump of four soldiers, and she squeezed the trigger repeatedly. Four loud _cha-binks_ erupted from her sniper rifle as three dropped, the last one staggering violently.

Alaska inserted a new round of bullets as she lowered her gun and ran behind Vermont, trying hard not to think about whose oddly familiar sounding yell had floated through the air.


	14. Assault

Alaska ran past Vermont once more, a full round now in her sniper rifle, the sound of bullets flying still raging from below and the sound of Colorado's Warthog squealing and all of them yelling and shouting. But her mind was focused on only one thing: the yell that had sounded so familiar moments after the first shot.

"Go directly down from here," Vermont yelled from behind her.

She jumped off, the ground speeding toward her again. She raised her knees to her chest and rolled as she felt the ground make contact with her back, and rushed past, carelessly shooting while looking through her scope at the dark-armored enemies while Jersey climbed onto the Warthog's turret and fired back at them after ducking under a sheet of bullets.

She ran towards the opening of the fortlike base, sensing bullets fly past her spine and head. Alaska continue to bolt across, Vermont shouting something from behind her; but she was deaf to anyone's protests.

She realized gunfire was echoing through the halls of the base, and pounded as hard as she could in the direction of it, picking up what seemed to be a bluish-purple gun that looked like it was powered by something that wasn't liquid, nor was it solid and hooked her finger over what she determined was the trigger.

She skidded on a small splotch of dark red liquid and saw West on the ground a pool of blood surrounding him while Tennessee knelt down by him, holding up his head with one hand, shooting from a pistol with the other. Kansas and Ohio firing while ducking around another corner.

Alaska felt a surge of rage rip through her, and she ran forward, throwing down her healing unit beside West. She leapt into the middle of the hallway's corner where Kansas and Ohio had dodged behind, and held the trigger down, her aim flying from one dark soldier to another, the light blue ammunition hitting them all squarely in the chest.

She heard Kansas cry out in surprise and Ohio's yell of "Wait!" as she ran toward them, not caring of the retaliating shots from the dark-armored soldiers.

Another soldier came at her, firing rapidly from an SMG in exchange with her fire. She threw herself at the soldier, ducking down under the arm that made to punch her.

She kicked under the attacker's arm near the middle region of his ribcage without completely caring and continued onward, once again holding down the trigger of the picked-up weapon, occassionaly making soldiers drop while bullets flew at them from behind her, making mostly all of them stagger and stumble, their armor sparking from lowering shields.

She rushed ahead, punching two across the face, giving another one a kick to the balls out of her own spite and slipped behind what was left of the enemy's group.

"Get him!" One shouted.

_Him?! _Alaska felt a fresh torrent of rage spike through her.

She ran directly at him like a boomerang, her hand flying to her knife without thought as her arm drew back.

She plunged the knife into his exposed stomach, his armor sparking as his shields lowered and blood spilled from the newly opened wound.

"Fuck... you..." Spat the soldier as Alaska grabbed him by his chestplate with her free hand, her other still on her knife.

A smile spread around her lips as her chin lowered and she stared him in the eyes. A low chuckle left her.

"I don't appreciate you taking my teammates," she growled softly at him; she pulled him closer, making the knife go deeper into him. He coughed, blood splattering the inside of his ODST-like, whitish visor. "I dunno who in hell you people are, but you are gonna fuckin' _pay _for this!" Her voice rose at the final part, ripping the knife out and throwing him by his chest armor onto one of the soldiers who had stayed still while watching Alaska threaten what seemed to be their squads' leader. She stood still for a moment more, the rage stilling inside her as she fired once more from the glowing-ammunitioned weapon, and it felt as though it was going to light on fire as she held down the trigger.

The sounds of what was happening and gunfire returned to her as her anger flattened, and she sprinted and rolled behind another corner, reality and the firing seeping back into her.

She clutched the steaming gun with both of her hands, resting her eyes for a brief moment and leaning her back against the metal wall and panted for her breath, bullets flying past her head and ricocheting from the metal wall of the corner.

She grunted as a small group of bullets from an assault rifle hit her shoulder, making it spark. She crouched down, preparing to run out and fire from the now cooling weapon in her hand.

However, a dark-teal armored figure rushed past her, what looked like a blur of sharp, solid light in his hand.

Hawaii slashed the long shard of solid light across the soldiers like a sword, dodging around and under the bullets whizzing at him and Alaska saw blood fly through the air.

"Holy hell," Alaska gasped as he continued to swing what seemed to be a sword, tearing through the enemies' ranks. She set down the weapon she'd found and unholstered her sniper rifle, starting to shoot along with Tenn, Kansas, and Ohio. Then she remembered West in a puddle of his own blood, possibly dying, and her anger returned. She froze for the smallest moment, then ran back through the hall, the HUD showing her shield amount drop quickly, but not caring.

She and Hawaii collided, back to back as he dodged a soldier's melee attack, and Alaska whipped out the weapon she'd been using. The remaining enemies came at them, but neither of them had time to react as bullets from a sniper rifle flew silently into the middle of all their visors and they collapsed; Kansas had taken the advantage of the adversaries' state of distraction and used a sniper rifle with a silencer in the absence of returning fire.

She sprinted back to West and Tennessee, along with Ohio, Kansas, and Hawaii.

The healing unit seemed to have done him good- the bleeding was no longer anything close to as severe it had been previously, and his recon chestplate was rising up and down, breath clear and visible, even if it was hard and unsteady.

She stood over him and Tenn, who had laid his head down and was still crouched beside him.

Hawaii sat on his knees and slowly removed West's Mark VI helmet; Alaska felt her hands shaking.

His thin face was pale and pasty, and a thin trail of blood was near the corner of his mouth, his eyes closed; there was a gash near his left eye, and he was sweating slightly.

His right eye opened a small bit and looked at them as they all crowded around him, kneeling, sitting or crouching by his heavily breathing form. He grunted as he attempted to sit up.

Alaska's hands went to the healing unit, trying to boost its power as much as was possible.

His arms struggled upwards to his face as he tried to view them, his left eye now struggling open after his other eye. His gasping breath calmed slightly as his hands fell and he gazed at them all with difficulty.

Alaska saw Kansas removing his helmet, the others doing so as well. She knew why Kansas had: he didn't like to feel superior to others, even if he did have a tendency to take jokes too far on an occassion. His tannish face and brown hair, still in its short ponytail; concern was etched in his features, his dark eyes focused on West's as he set his helmet onto ground.

Tennessee's long black hair was hanging loose over her back, her wide hazel eyes trained in the same place Kansas' were.

Ohio's tumbleweed-colored, messy hair and scruff of a beard was revealed as he took off his recon helmet, a small, comforting smile directed at West.

Hawaii removed his, and his thin, navy eyes stared into West's, his sleek strawberry-blonde hair visible, a scowl of nervousness cut into his face.

Alaska finally removed hers, almost scared to look into West's eyes, and felt her dark hair fall on one of her shoulders, but kept her eyes closed for a bit longer, slightly hesitant as she forced her eyelids up, and looked back at him.

He lifted his head slightly, a bit of a smile playing around his lips.

"Fancy meeting you guys here," he managed to say, directed at Alaska and Ohio. Then his head dropped sideways onto the hard metal floor of the base, the small smile still spread across his face, the thin trickle of blood from it to his chin, and his eyes closed once more.

Alaska stared at him for a second longer, then she said, "We need to get out of here; someone needs to carry West. The rest of us need to help Jersey and the others."

Hawaii hooked one of his arms under the middle of West's leg, and the other under his neck after he pulled his helmet back on.

Tennessee, Kansas, and Ohio replaced their helmets, while Alaska bent down and grabbed the blue-and-pale yellow Mark VI helmet that belonged to the spartan that was now hanging loosely in Hawaii's teal and dark gray highlighted arms. She slowly slipped the helmet over West's lightly blood-covered face.

Ohio ran out first, Tennessee following, then Hawaii, and finally, Kansas. Alaska absently watched them all go forward, her helmet tucked loosely under her arm. Her eyes became unfocused, and she found herself gripping the dogtag tightly again.

"Don't go out, West," she sighed. "You won't. Not now. Just trust me."

She jammed her helmet on, gathering her healing unit as she ran after them, going a past the small pool of West's blood on the cold metal floor.

"I'm gonna get us out of this," she said to herself, more determinedly rather than desperately. "Even if it's the last damn thing I do. Just trust me."


	15. Going, Going, Gone

As sunlight hit her eyes, the sound of a Warthog turret's fire slowing and tires coming to an abrupt halt with a squeal of brakes, Ohio, Kansas and Tennessee were in front of Hawaii, weapons drawn, who was still carrying West. Jersey, Wash, Oregon, and Vermont were crouched by Alabama, most of them firing from sniper rifles, while Colorado shot continually from two assault rifles, one in each hand, Wash reloading his battle rifle.

She sprinted at them briskly, crouching behind the Warthog, which was smoking at the hood. She poked her sniper rifle out from over the cracked windshield through what was left of the enemies' gunshots and zoomed in once, looking for two soldiers in particular again.

"Dammit," she muttered as she saw one of the soldiers make a sign to his companions, and five out of the eleven Jersey and the others hadn't managed to incapacitate activated their cloaking units, while the ones who didn't have a unit retreat quickly, one supporting an ally that had been weakened to the point that they couldn't walk.

Wash raised his weapon, and shot repeatedly at their retreating backs, making the one being supported slump to the ground, and revealing another with cloaking after making his appearance spark and falter, though still managing to stagger after his allies.

Tennessee's sniper rifle came in front of her, but Vermont's hand lowered as a sign to make her reholster it.

"Let 'em run," Jersey growled at her fellows, mainly at Alaska and Oregon as the urge to run after them passed through the two and one of Alaska's legs drew back.

Colorado had gone to the Warthog and climbed into the driver seat and said to Hawaii, "Set down West in shotgun."

He nodded, and lowered him into the seat next to Colarado, then situated himself on its turret.

Alabama motioned for the rest of them to follow him as the Warthog Colorado was operating sped away, and the small group went through a gap of brush, around the baselike structure that they had previously been in.

Alaska went after Ohio and Kansas, Tenn following them closely with Wash, Jersey, Vermont, and Oregon.

"There are some more vehicles over here," Alabama explained over his shoulder as they came closer to him around the corner and through the clump of plants.

Three Mongooses and an extra Warthog were parked behind another group of vegetation Alabama pushed aside.

He ducked under the plants and climbed onto the driver seat of a Mongoose, waiting for someone to go onto the passanger seat.

"Wait," said Kansas. "Shouldn't we take a look around inside the base first?"

"You can look if you want, Kansas, but I think I'm done with this place; and besides, I've already got a something that I looted from that place." Alabama pulled out a long, dark blue weapon from his back in exchange with his sniper rifle. Alaska pulled out the gun she had found, and told them about the sword seemingly made of light that Hawaii had found.

Kansas shrugged in response, heading toward the entrance.

"Go with him, please," Alabama said to Oregon; he nodded in response, walking briskly after Kansas.

Alaska sat down sideways on the hard driver seat of a free Mongoose, her legs crossed.

She drummed her fingers against the seat in the absence of activity, gazing around at all the others, who were standing or leaning against the wall akwardly.

"So," Wash said, clearly hoping to relieve some stress. His voice faltered as everyone looked at him. "Er- nevermind."

Alaska chuckled quietly; she always tended to find Washington's quirkiness amusing.

She could tell that Jersey was sighing exasperatedly- she disliked strangeness and quirks; she was a bit of a perfectionist, which typically got in her own way.

Vermont merely walked over to the Warthog. "Shotgun!" He called barely before Ohio.

"Fuck," Ohio cursed shortly, and she suppressed a snort.

Then the seriousness of their situation seeped back into her, and a frown crept onto her face once more.

She saw Tennessee, who had gone into the driver seat of the Warthog, talking with Vermont.

Alabama's shoulders had relaxed, but his head was swiveling around the area- evidently, he was still nervous about the whole place.

Alaska leaned her head back against the orangish, stone of the canyon-like walls and raised her eyes to the sky above them and sighed at the heavily clouding sky, not paying attention to the sound of footsteps coming closer to her.

"So," Wash said quietly above her left shoulder. She looked back down, staring at him. If she looked closely enough, she could see his light gray eyes through the thinnish, Mark VI visor. He was still holding his battle rifle.

"Hm?" She responded. "Yeah?"

"Well, I guess that, y'know... Ahm,"

Alaska cocked her head at him confusedly.

"Can we talk when we get back to the Mother of Invention, please?"

"Sure," she said back questioningly. "Why?"

"Nothing much, I suppose. Just... kinda wanted to talk to you about something."

She gave him an imploring look that he couldn't see, one of her brows furrowed, her head still tilted to one side. "Okay...?"

A silence passed between them.

"Care to sit down?" Alaska finally said, gesturing to the free seat of the Mongoose. He gingerly lowered himself onto the passanger seat; he and vehicles didn't typically mix well.

"Well, what is it?" She said abruptly, making him jump. She knew it would- scouts had tendencies to be able to wheedle things out from their adversaries using certain tactics, even in an everyday conversation.

"Ah- nothing- why?" Wash stuttered nervously.

_And predictably_, Alaska thought to herself with an unseen smirk.

"Just messin' with ya," she said, giving him a joking slug in the arm.

His hands clasped together and he started to do a slight twiddling motion with his thumbs with a small mixture of a groan and a sigh. They sat in an akward silence until they heard the sound of Oregon and Kansas rushing towards them.

"_WE GOTTA GO!_" Oregon yelled as they approached. Bullets flew past their heads and the others started up their vehicles' engines.

Kansas leapt from a high ridge, a long, hammerlike weapon in one of his hands, and landed on the ground near Alabama's Mongoose, and jumped on the back of it, weapon still in hand.

"_Go, go, go, go, go!_" Kansas cried, ammunition starting to buzz past Alaska's head.

Alaska shouted as her shoulder armor sparked once again, Wash crouched as far as he could, arms covering his head.

"_The hell _are you doing, Wash?! We need to effin' get going! _Grab on_!" She grabbed one of the handles with one hand as the other gripped Wash's loose arm, her foot flying to the gas pedal with cries of "Whoawhoa-whoa! _WAIT!_" coming from Wash behind her.

"Just make sure we get away without them following us!" Ohio yelled over the sound of the turret he was firing relentlessly from.

"Oh, SHIT!" Oregon yelled after launching himself onto the Mongoose Jersey was driving, the both of them speeding along by them all.

"Keep going forward," Tennessee called to Alaska and Oregon. "The rest of us will cover you!"

Alaska floored the pedal in response, the sound of the turret being drowned out by the growl of the Mongoose's engine, still holding onto Wash's arm, which was starting to come forward, finally managing to grip the handle of the passanger seat. "_SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!_" he shouted as his hand grasped it.

Her hand that had been holding onto Wash flew to the other part of the handlebar and she leaned farther over the dashboard of the small, lightweight vehicle, air forcefully whipping against the windshield and whistling in her ears.

The Mongoose leapt as she swerved to a small ramplike rock and into the air. A loud, dull shot sounded from behind her, and a rocket flew past her head.

"Son of a bitch!" She and Wash shouted.

Static entered the vehicle's radio.

"The hell is going on back there?" It was Colorado.

"Kansas had the idea to go looking for things we could use and he and Oregon encountered enemy forces!" Alabama's voice said.

"We think that they're Insurrectionist forces now!" Kansas yelled through the speaker.

"Keep heading down the small path, and you'll meet with us eventually! 4-3-7 and ourselves are waiting on a Pelican- please hurry!" Hawaii's voice buzzed through.

"Wash, you able to determine whether or not they're Insurrctionist from here with your scope?" Alaska said over the speeding Mongoose as she glanced at him.

She felt him swivel slightly and raise his battle rifle to his eyes. "Um, _CAR!_" Wash yelled from behind her. She didn't even have a chance to look around before the sound of a loud thump with a faint _boom_ accompanying it. Pieces of metal and shards of broken glass flew over their heads.

"Got 'im!" She faintly heard Kansas shout from behind them.

Two more dull shots came from behind her. "Rockets!" Wash exclaimed.

She swerved the vehicle to the left, explosions kicking up dust and rubble where they'd been moments before.

The way carved into a deep slope, and Alaska had to concentrate just to keep their Mongoose steady from the speed.

"Aaah, fuck," she said as she saw that it rose sharply up only six yards away, quickly speeding closer and closer to them.

She kept the pedal floored, and bent slightly lower under the windshield. "Oh son of a bitch," Wash said, and gripped the bar of the passanger seat with both hands tightly. "Ohh, no."

She closed her eyes as she felt the ground leave contact and the Mongoose vault into the air, and what felt like it landing on a thick metal floor, and then collision with a wall, pieces of glass from the windshield fly off and buffet her armor, and her neck and head being forced forward from whiplash, her arms flying from the handles of the Mongoose. She stumbled off the shattered vehicle, recognizing the metal enviornment- they were in a Pelican.

4-3-7 was looking at them through the cockpit door, where Alaska saw Hawaii and Colorado pressed against the wall

Wash was holding his stomach with one hand, his other holding a metal harness attatched to a seat. "That... was some of the worst driving, ever... Of all time," he gasped.

West stared at them from the seat he was in, his knees to his chest; he must have lifted them at the last second to avoid the Mongoose running over him.

He jumped up and limped his way to Alaska, and did something completely unexpected: he threw his arms loosely around her neck; his breath became slightly uneven and rapid. "You made it," he choked.

She stood still, confusion in the form of shock spreading from the back of her mind.

He let go, and held her shoulders with each of his own hands. A million questions ran through Alaska's head as she and West stared at eachother. Then he let go, and managed his way back to the seat he had been in.

The sound of Kansas and Alabama yelling broke her out of her trance of shock, and she dove to the side as another Mongoose darted into the Pelican, and they rolled off, their vehicle smashing against the wall, making Hawaii and Colorado recoil in the cockpit and Wash duck, covering his head.

Only five more were left: Ohio, Vermont, Tennessee, Jersey, and Oregon.

The sound of two more shouts and an engine rumbling reached her ears, and she dodged into the cockpit, hearing Jersey's and Vermont's grunts of pain and their vehicle's front shatter.

Alaska sprinted back out, going to the open door of the slowly lowering Pelican, looking for Tennesse and the other two.

"Come on!" 4-3-7 yelled from up front. "They're starting to target our Pelican- the others need to hurry!"

In response, their Warthog was seen speeding along the steep ramplike road as fast as it was able to, Ohio having abandoned the turret and firing from a rocket launcher and Vermont clutching the dashboard of their vehicle from shotgun.

It vaulted into the air; Ohio and Vermont climbed onto the windshield, Tennessee crouched in her seat as her hands left the wheel as she got ready to jump over it.


	16. Homecoming

**(I am so sorry that I have not updated in forever, I've been a little backed up with other things; as always, I sincerely hope you enjoy and once again, I'm so sorry.)**

Alaska rushed into the cockpit, Colorado ducking to the right as she came.

She heard three loud thuds and a grunt from the area behind them.

"So, how have you been, Alaska? Because we've just been trying to repress the shit that happened in the past few hours," Hawaii said sarchastically above her from the copilot seat.

She made a rude hand gesture at him, and hurried back out.

"Shit," she muttered as she saw Tennessee, Ohio, and Vermont in a heap on the floor.

Alabama was down by the still-open hatch of the Pelican firing from the long, bluish weapon he said he had found in the base. Jersey, West, Oregon, Wash, and Kansas were fastening harnesses over themselves.

Ohio pushed himself up, quickly going to the hatch with his sniper rifle as Vermont pulled up Tennessee and both of them went to empty seats and fastened harnesses over themselves.

"Hold on," Colorado yelled from the door. "Might want to strap yourself in if you haven't yet- we're about to leave."

The hatch sharply snapped closed and the floor started to rumble. Alaska lost her balance and stumbled over to a free seat, staggering around as the floor leaned up and the jets roared to life. Ohio crashed into Alabama as he slid to the left, along with everyone else.

"Oh, hell," said Jersey as she unharnessed herself and pulled Alabama away from the now closed opening where he was pushing Ohio off of him and Colorado exited the cockpit and gazed at them all, holding tightly to the door's frame.

"Ah- Jesus Christ!" Ohio yelled as the Pelican tilted sharply up and he was thrown against the wall. "Shit!"

"The hell are you doing, Ohio?! Strap in!" Jersey barked.

"I would if I could actually make it somewhere without falling over my own damn feet," he retorted.

"Screw you!" Jersey growled at him.

"Jesus, neither you or South can handle this shit," Alaska heard Oregon mutter from his seat by Wash.

"Dammit," Alaska grunted. She ducked out of the harness and snatched one of Ohio's flailing arms and dragged him, fumbling to her own seat. Ohio drew his arm back from her grasp and pitched himself to the seat across from her and Colrado slipped to the seat left of her.

"West, you holding up fine?" She asked, glancing to the blue and yellow soldier to her right and he nodded.

"Are you all strapped in? Great!" 4-3-7 shouted from ahead. The engines flared loudly to full power, and the Pelican lurched roughly to the right, making her lean against her seat and the ones in the row across her shift forward.

Kansas made a yelp, clutching his stomach and Alaska saw a small splotch of red seep onto his pale yellow armored hand.

"Why are you bleeding, Kansas?" she snapped at him almost instantly. Heads turned to look at him.

"Fucking dammit," he cursed softly.

"Well- I mean, we were getting shot at as we went-" Alabama stammered.

"I'm fine," Kansas cut across him. "It's not serious- I'm fine, really!"

"What happened?" Alaska asked sternly.

He shifted guiltily in his seat, clutching his harness with one hand, his stomach with the other one; red was slowly but steadily inching over it.

"Don't bullshit me," she warned.

"You understand that other forces or something were atracking us, right? Right? Hell, we're pretty damn lucky no one was shot to death or incapacita-"

"Hey!" this time Kansas was interrupted by 4-3-7. "I think we've got a transmission coming in- I dunno where it's from, and there's no definite signal; you want me to allow it?"

Alaska, West, and Ohio stumbled to the cockpit hurriedly. Hawaii stared down at them as they entered, and 4-3-7 swiveled in his seat to face them. Static was emitting from the radio in front of him as one of his hands twiddled with the buttons and knobs on the dashboard.

"Patch it through," West said gruffly. "Bet I know who it is."

"Well, hello there," a sardonically happy, annoying voice said. "It has come to our attention that a select few of you have come across a few of our more - ah - private items and other things. So, you can figure that we're not too pleased about that."

The other deep and filterish voice came through. "Unfortunately, we are required not to continue to assault you by orders from our superior- that is, unless word gets out of what's happened here; those of you who've done a little snooping know especially what we're speaking about."

"Oh, and by the way," the other said. "If you come back to Chorus and you're found by us- you're pretty much- uh, what's the term? Oh, yeah, yeah; I remember: screwed."

"Hey- hey, I think I know those voices!" Hawaii exclaimed from behind them.

"Those _fuckin_' assholes," Ohio growled quietly.

"And remember," The deep-voiced one said, "we _are _watching."

The call ended altogether abruptly, the cockpit filled with silence; West looked at the floor, his arms crossed.

Alaska finally broke the quietness. "What... in the hell...?"

"What are we going to tell the Director and the Counselor? Oh, Christ," said West.

"Could you guys... do me a favor?" 4-3-7 asked nervously. A shred of understanding went into her mind for the first time in quite a while and Vermont's words came back to her.

"You lied to them, didn't you?"

"Yep," he sighed.

"Of course," Ohio said immediately.

4-3-7 stole a look at him, briefly away from the controls. "Really? Why?"

"Because you probably kept us alive back there," West replied.

"I- I really appreciate this, y'know? Trying to get one over on the Director- he can be a fucking _menace_. I might still be in pretty damn hot water here if they find out."

"We definitely won't tell 'em," Hawaii piped up. "There's no way."

"You should check on Kansas," West said.

"You sure? I kind of need to ask-" Hawaii began.

"Yeah, I think you should," Ohio insisted.

"Whatever," she retorted, rolling her eyes. "Just talk about whatever you need to."

She slid through the door back into the cabin area of the Pelican, where Kansas was still lightly gripping his stomach.

"Assault rifle shots, I take it?" She asked as she came closer to them, the floor no longer swinging wildly to the left and right. Kansas looked up from the red-covered hand and nodded. "Looks like- what?- five, six bullets? Amazing that they nailed you while you were still driving." She glanced at one of the roughened Mongooses.

"Anyway, I'll run a healing unit on you. And before you say anything, no, you're _not _fine, and you need to get to the medical bay as soon as you can when we get back to the M.O.I."

"Damn, what are you- my mother?" He laughed. Some of the others chortled a bit.

"Well, excuse me, Kansas. And I think it'd be a bit... unorthodox to be making jokes when you're nursing an open wound."

"Ah, back off. He was just joking around, Alaska," Alabama said with a tired tint to his voice.

She sighed and placed a healing unit beside Kansas. "Fine," she snapped lightly and walked back to her seat by Colorado.

"Christ," she groaned. "Where and how in hell did this go to shit?"

"The moment it started," Ohio answered as he came out of the cockpit door.

"I think it's safe to say we fucked up a fair few times," Tennessee added. "But- it wasn't a _complete_ fail of a mission, right?"

"That's... not really helping much, Tenn." Vermont said, finally speaking.

She rested her head in her hand and crossed her legs. She felt someone walk to her right and the seat beside her shift. Then came a friendly punch to her shoulder and she looked over at West and a taunting nudge to her head came from Ohio, who was walking back down to his seat. He and West exchanged the same joking gestures, and he settled himself across Jersey.

For the second time that day, she made a rude hand gesture. Then she lowered the arm that was holding her head and crossed it with her free one and closed her eyelids, which were feeling like lead by now.

_Goddammit_, the last thought ran through her head.


	17. Review

"Wake up- hey, Alaska! C'mon, wake the hell up!"

"Dammit, Ohio. If you don't stop shaking me, I am going to put a dent in your god damned forehead," Alaska growled, her eyes snapping open and a glare carving into her mouth and eyebrows under her helmet. His hands released hurriedly from her shoulders and he backed away. "What is it?"

"We're almost there; I thought you might want to know," he replied.

Alaska yawned slightly, looking around the Pelican. Oregon and Washington were bickering about something with Jersey, who tapped her foot impatiently, and Colorado was staring at the ceiling; Alabama's head swiveled around, looking boredly at their company; Vermont and Tennessee were talking animatedly to eachother; Kansas was rapping his fingers against his harness. The healing unit she had activated for Kansas had powered down and was held still on the Pelican floor by Kansas' foot, and his hand still had a blot of red on it.

Ohio walked into the cockpit, likely to talk to Hawaii. West looked over at Alaska, his arms crossed and his foot tapping against the floor.

"Something bugging you?"

"What hinted that?" she asked, shading the agitation in her voice with flatness.

"Eh- well, y'know, the fact that you threatened to 'put a dent' in Ohio's forehead."

She leaned her neck until she heard a small popping sound and felt it unstiffen a bit, then she leaned it the other way. Then she flexed her fingers, trying to loosen her muscles. "I have no clue what you're talking about," she replied dully.

"Come on, Alaska. I've been your friend long enough to know when you're pissed off. You, however, seem not to know that I'll keep bugging you until you tell me why."

"Hm." She found she was having a bit of difficulty placing her own anger. "Nothing, I guess. I suppose I'm... just a bit agitated with the little flop of a mission."

"It wasn't that bad," he said, an Alaska could tell that he was rolling his eyes behind his visor. He made a kind of "tchah," sound and uncrossed his arms. She looked down at her own hands and gave a small sigh and something she'd been meaning to talk to West clicked to the front of her mind.

"Hey. Those soldiers." she muttered to him. "The one decided not to attack us; he left with the other, even though he easily could have taken care of us, considering Ohio hadn't been fully conscious, and I wasn't even in the area at the time and in a fair amount of panic. What in hell even happened to you? All I saw when I came back was one of their cloaking units- on both of them, somehow- wearing off. We heard some scuffling and one said "they appeared to be meeting resistance." Then he told us not to follow them, and ran off with his friend. Ohio and I radioed for help, and... shit went down from there."

He said nothing for a bit, seeming to try to find the correct words. "Well, can I tell you back on the Mother of Invention, actually? Or ask Ohio... he asked the same thing earlier... back in the cockpit."

"Why not just tell me now?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, if I'm honest."

"Fine. As long as you actually do let me know," she mumbled back.

"That didn't sound too confident," he snorted.

She shrugged it off, pushing down a small chuckle that had made its way into her throat. She contemplated him somewhat seriously. "You looked pretty torn up back at their base. How'd that happen?"

"Well, to put it simply, we broke out, got seperated - Colorado and Alabama managed to find a couple of vehicles and forced their way past and out, and the rest of us got stuck inside. I was in front, and we got ambushed from the right and I got shot up. But they didn't show up on our motion trackers; that's the weird thing about it." He shook his head as Zeta faded into view on his right shoulder. His thin mouth was cut in a grim frown and his arms were tightly folded across his dark indigo chest.

"Just like the soldier you obtained you knife from, many of them had cloaking units," he said darkly. "Fortunately, West was able to find what seems to be a prototype version of one."

West nodded and took something from his lower back. It was shaped slightly like a boomerang, but not quite and looked like it had several components and very complicated.

"We were planning to give it to the Director, see what the tech geeks say about it."

Alaska opened her mouth to say something, but just then the hatch opened and revealed the familiar, wide docking bay of the Mother Of Invention and their harnesses released. She got up from her seat along with the others, personally glad the mission was over. They exited the Pelican one by one, all of them making sure they left nothing behind.

Alaska waved to the Jersey, Vermont, Oregon, Alabama, Wash, and Colorado as the original group made their way to the door.

"Great. A shitload of stairs to go up," she muttered. "And then the damn review."

"Why does something tell me it won't go well?" West said under his breath to her.

"The fact that it never goes well?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, that's probably it."

Hawaii came up from behind Kansas, gazing at the large, hammer-like weapon that he had slung on his back. "Where did you find that?" he asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Same place you found that sword thing," he responded, gesturing to what looked like the handle of it, which was on the side of his leg. "In their base."

"I managed to find this," Alaska put in, turning around to face them. She took the bluish gun from the side of her own leg.

"Hey, the ammunition looks like the material this is made of," Hawaii said, taking his weapon handle and making a whipping motion, which caused the solid looking light to extend into the form of a sword. She took a closer look as they began to climb the stairs, putting the gun against it, comparing them.

"You're right," she said.

"They actually might use plasma," Kansas said and gestured to their weapons. "As for mine, I really don't know if I'm honest."

"Wait, that's possible?" Hawaii asked.

"It might be. And it does resemble plasma."

They continued upwards, still conversing over the weapons they had found; none of them seemed very ordinary at all, but they seemed to resemble normal weapons. The other three kept ascending ahead of Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas; West and Ohio were having their own quiet discussion while Tennessee walked in front of all of them by her lonesome, swinging her arms.

Finally, after what felt like an hour of walking up endless steps, Alaska saw the familiar door to the room that they received and reviewed missions and she hitched the strange gun to her leg.

They stopped in front of it and waited. Alaska stayed at the back of the group, leaning against the wall and stared at the door unfocusedly. In about five minutes or so, the Counselor emerged and the chatter stopped.

"Please, enter," he said and stepped aside politely. Ohio went in first and was followed by West. Hawaii went with Kansas and Tennessee, who looked quickly over her shoulder at Alaska as she pushed herself up from the wall and walked slowly toward the door after them.

She gave the Counselor a small nod of greeting that he returned as she went into the slightly dim room where the spartans were in a line side by side facing the Director. She positioned herself at attention beside Tenn and looked forward at the Director.

"Agents," he said after looking around at them from the opposite side of the long table.

"Sir," they chorused back.

"Were your objectives achieved?"

"We infiltrated their base and retrieved Agents Alabama and Colorado, sir. Qe were unable to determine whether or not the cave was connected to it, however. There was a group of, what we could tell were, mercenaries."

"Were the forces Insurrectionists?"

"Yes, sir,"Alaska replied before anyone else could say something.

The Director paced around the long end of the table, his arms behind his back. "I'm slighty disappointed in you, agents."

Alaska's brows furrowed a bit with disbelief behind her visor.

"You partially failed your mission: you were unable to discover if the cave and base were connected, and more than half of you were apprehended. This most definitely could have gone better. Was anything else found?"

Kansas reached for the long handle of his weapon and gingerly set it on the table. Hawaii did the same, extending the swordlike-lengths of light before placing it on the table beside the heavy weapon Kansas had found and Alaska set the gun with luminescent ammunition on the long table also.

"Alabama also found a weapon," Tenn added as the Director and the Counselor approached the weapons, interest etched into their features.

"Can one of you please take these up to the scientists upstairs?" the Counselor asked. "And get Alabama's so that we can assess what they are?"

"Yes, sir," Kansas responded, slinging his weapon over his back again and hitching Hawaii's sword and Alaska's gun to either of his legs. He gave them a quick salute before walking quickly out of the room. The Director stared hardly at them for a few moments.

"Dismissed," he finally said coldly.


	18. Aftermath

**(Sorry if this chapter seems a bit... crappy- I'm not the best at writing uneventful chapters)**

Alaska went to the door and pulled it open, waiting for the others to go through. Ohio and Hawaii exited first, giving Alaska small nods of appreciation. Tennessee followed them and gave her a tiny shrug. West stayed still, however, facing the Director.

"Are you coming, West?" Alaska asked him.

"Yeah, I will, just go ahead- don't need to wait for me," he hissed, making a small waving gesture to her behind his back.

Alaska gave him a nod and slipped through the door, closing it behind her. Ohio was waiting for her beside the doorway, his arms folded and legs crossed, leaning against the wall.

"What's West up to?"

She shrugged at him. "I dunno; maybe he wanted to ask the Director something."

Ohio unfolded his limbs and stood up from the wall. "Shall we go, then?"

"Sure, I suppose," she replied.

She and Ohio walked side by side down the metal halls of the ship, Alaska keeping quiet; she didn't have anything to say, nor was she much in the mood for talk. They started to make their way back down to the locker rooms, their boots making soft thudding noises on the hard metal floor.

Ohio cast an occassional glance across his shoulder at her, but stayed silent, but did clear his throat multiple times. She kept her gaze firmly forward, ignoring him each time until they finally reached the door. She pushed it open and went in, making sure Ohio had caught hold of it before letting it go. Hawaii was in front of his locker in the second row, stretching his arms, only his right side visible around the left column.

She went over to her locker, the third to last on the first row, and sat down on the bench in front of it. She lifted her helmet from her head, a sigh of relief escaping from her and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Go ahead, Ohio. I'll wait for you," she said.

Ohio, who had stopped briefly in front of Alaska, shrugged and went to the row where Hawaii and his own locker were.

Alaska dialated the armor pieces on her forearms and shoulder and removed them, rotating her right arm in the absence of the heavy armor and pulled off the black undergloves and the small pieces of armor on the top of her hand.

"Hi," West said to her as he entered.

"What held you up?"

"I wanted to discuss a few things -along with the cloaking unit prototype- with the Director. Why?"

She shrugged. "Curiosity's sake."

"I'll answer your question, later, by the way," he added as he turned to the right.

"Right," she said absently as she watched him walk off to his locker. She rolled up the right sleeve of the black protective suit that went under her armor, curious of the damage that had occured what felt to her like many hours ago. A thin, palish scar was etched diagonally across one side of her arm and, slightly smaller, on the opposite side.

"Could be worse," she muttered.

"What could?" Hawaii half-yelled from her left.

"Goddamn, you heard that from over there, Hawaii?" she blurted in amazement.

"Yeah; why? What is it?"

"Nothing that important," she said, brushing it off. She slid the sleeve back over her arm and opened the locker with a plaque with her name on it. She pushed aside a thick book and a drawstring bag, and caught a look at herself in the small mirror she had put on the inside the door. Her hair was ruffled from wearing her helmet and there was a slight bruise under her eye. She grimaced and gathered the pieces she had removed from her arm, and put them in the bag. She slung it over her shoulder and got up from the bench, tucking her helmet under her arm.

She adjusted a few stray hairs from her bangs in the mirror before noticing West, who had changed into an ordinary blue jacket over her shoulder in the reflection and closed the locker door.

Alaska turned around to face him; he had covered the gash near his eye with his hair as best he could, his mouth carved into his usual calm smirk.

"I still don't know why you don't just leave your armor in your actual locker," he told her, shaking his head.

"So what? I like to have it with inside my room so I don't have to come down here every morning-"

"Plus, you're wearing almost all of your armor a lot of the time. What's with that?" Ohio said from from her left as he turned the corner.

"I dunno. Just feels more natural, I guess. And I just _really _don't like changing in here."

"So weird," she heard Ohio mumble to himself; West, although keeping a straight face, gave him a tiny nod of agreement.

"Like you guys aren't?" she retorted.

"They have a point, Alaska; you're not exactly what people might call typical. But everyone's different, aren't they?" Hawaii said over Ohio's shoulder, making him jump.

"Don't do that!" Ohio yelled. "You scared the hell out of me, dude!"

A grin merely spread across his face and he shrugged.

"If everyone is different, then what's so different about being different?" Alaska asked them, hoping to catch Hawaii in his own statement as the group headed towards the door. "Well?"

"Ex_actly_," West replied shortly. He cracked the door open and slipped out of the locker room, holding it open long enough for Ohio to catch it and go through; Hawaii stopped it with his foot and nudged it open for Alaska to exit.

"Thanks." she said as she did so.

"Why _do_ you like to keep most of your armor on?" he inquired her, not troubling to keep his voice low as they followed the other two.

"Y'know what? Eff it, I'm weird; I give up," she responded. "I admit it. Anyways, I'll see you guys later." She turned left down the corridor with Ohio.

She looked slightly up at him to see that he was staring at her. "Where are you headed?" she asked.

"I was going to go look for Kansas, but I figured I may as well speak with you for a while."

"What about?" she said curiously.

He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again- he seemed to be having some trouble finding the right words.

"How would you react," he finally said slowly, "if I told you West went with those... I still have no clue who they were, just so they wouldn't have killed us then and there?"

She took a while to answer as she thought it over. "Not very surprised actually."

"Hm?"

"No, really; I'm not too shocked about it. What would you have done?"

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's the question, isn't it? I dunno, Alaska. I dunno. I mean, I definitely would if I had to, but... just seems like an easier choice in the moment..."

She felt the air stiffen with uneasiness around her and silence .

"What about you?" Ohio asked suddenly. "Would you have done the same?"

"I... well, of course," she responded without thought and slightly apprehensively. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Calm down, calm down," Ohio said, calmy putting his hands up joking defensiveness. "You don't have to be so... snappish."

"**_'_**Snappish**_'_**?" She repeated sarchastically and rolled her eyes.

"Well, I don't have a better word -hell, I dunno if it's even a real one, then again, I don't really care-"

He stopped short when he saw Alaska chuckling.

"And you're telling _me_ to calm down," she said.

She stopped climbing up the staricase and entered the hallway where her and other a few agents' rooms were.

"I'll see you later on," she told him as she grabbed hold of the handle to her door. He nodded, giving her a small brush of a two-fingered salute and continuing on by himself to his own. She was just about to turn the handle when it opened from the inside and she was forced back.

"Oh- hey Alaska," a soldier a bit on the short side wearing pale green and blue trimmed C.Q.B. arm-pieces and an E.O.D. chestplate said.

"Arkansas," she replied. "By the way, your brother's back."

"Right. Thanks!" Arkansas said she rushed off the way Alaska had come, slipping her C.Q.B. helmet on as she half-ran, leaving the door open for Alaska.

Alaska and Arkansas shared a room, like most other agents did; they shared a typical bunk bed, Alaska herself preferring the bottom bunk.

"Christ," she muttered as she set the drawstring bag and helmet roughly on the lower cot and closing the door behind her and looking at their disshelved room. "Probably need to clean this place up later."

She left it a few minutes later in a white jacket and pants, no longer wearing her armor. She felt her stomach shudder with hunger and she directed her footsteps to the cafeteria.

She descended the stairs once more, a bit quicker without her heavy, though slightly lighter than standard Mark VI, armor in silence.

"What a weird effin' day," she said to herself quietly as she entered the warmly lighted cafeteria.


	19. Medic (?)

Alaska sighed and peered around at the long food line in front of her. She impatiently began to kick her foot back and forth across the floor, making a shuffling sound. The Dakotas took their trays and the line moved ahead slightly.

She stifled a yawn with her hand as she shuffled forward with the others. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and her head swiveled around. Alabama was looking grimly back at her; he gave a sense of forboding.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Guess I should say thanks before anything," he replied. "But we can talk on our way to the medical wing."

She brought her palm to her forehead. "Damnit- I even forgot after I reminded Kansas to go." she said evasively; what she was thinking was: _Are you fucking serious? _

"I know they seem kind of pointless, Alaska, and I know that since you frequently "forget" to go, you're less than fond of them. But..." he shrugged, "you know the rules: _'after every mission-'_"

"_Every participant soldier is to report to the medical bay_," she finished exasperatedly. Alaska and the other freelancers pretty much knew the book by heart, even though some didn't always follow it. However, they all followed the Director's commands- he had an aura to him that practically yelled into your face: _Listen to my commands and obey them or else!_

She briefly glanced wishingly at the shortening food line and sighed, exiting the cafeteria with Alabama.

"I actually did a bit of digging we while in the base," he muttered to her after a while as they walked down the long halls of the Invention once more.

"Oh?" she said interestedly.

"Anything you want to know in particular before Colorado and I tell the Director?"

She hesitated. "Did... you find out what they called themselves?"

He nodded, but furrowed one of his eyebrows and his greenish eyes looked up at the ceiling, as if he were trying harder than he normally did to remember what.

"I believe that one went by the name of his armor, specifically, his helmet. This isn't a real help to us, however, since we aren't entirely sure of what it's called. _Yet_; all we can say that we definitely know is that it isn't his real birthname," he said slowly. "The one who was a scout, evidently, the others acknowledged him as... I think it was something starting with an F... ahm... Er..."

Alaska looked at him questioningly, but didn't say anything-she felt that it was better not to anyway.

His eyes brightened as he snapped his fingers and something came back to him. "OH! Felix! His name was Felix!" he exclaimed a bit louder than he meant, making Vermont, Oregon and Arkansas, who were passing by look curiously at them.

"Oops," he said dully, his cheeks becoming flustered and pinkish, as they always easily did. He rubbed the back of his neck as the five of them, including himself began laughing at his sudden outburst until the sound of the others' laughing faded as they turned a corner.

"So, I'm not the only one who didn't completely recognize the one guy's armor, huh?" Alaska asked around her slowing chuckles.

He shook his head.

"Anything too insane happen is that base?"

He shuddered, saying, "I got caught at a disadvantage in one of the narrower hallways- I don't even know why in the world the Director requested a sniper for a Recon mission; Colorado was able to retrieve the recent audio logs in my armor and send them here and recorded his own and- well..."

"You're kind of avoiding the question," she continued; he was hiding his uneasiness quite well, though she could tell by his contracted pupil she could see that he didn't want to talk about it much; she couldn't exactly say that she blamed him- she hadn't wanted to mention the events of Chorus to Vermont when he'd inquired her, nor anyone else, really.

"Nevermind," she said hastily. "Er... you find out who they were taking orders from?"

"Not exactly- they didn't use a real name; they called whoever it was 'Control' and the main two mercs."

"Hm...? You sure there was no specified name?"

He nodded sharply and his mouth was a tight frown, but avoided her gaze; if he wanted not to speak about anything before, he definitely didn't want to now. They didn't talk for the rest of the short walk to the medical area.

West was standing against the doorframe with his head leaning back, his eyes half-closed and arms folded. Zeta appeared to be sitting cross-legged on his shoulder and staring inside the door.

"Hi," Alabama said as they approached, making him jump and his eyes snap open as he looked away from the ceiling.

He grunted in response. "And where have you been, Alaska?"

"Don't judge me- I'm not a real big fan of these things," she hissed. "Have you two even been checked out yet?"

They nodded at her and Zeta glanced at her, a bright violet eye visible for a brief second from under his dark indigo hood; he flashed from West's shoulder and in front of Alaska's face; he was no longer sitting and had drawn himself up to his full height now.

"I think you've been overusing that unit, and not even with the proper equipment to be able to effectively maintain it," he nagged at her. "You _need _an A.I. if you're going to use it as frequently as you do on the field. In fact, it's amazing that it hasn't backfired yet and seriously injured anyone." He tapped his foot agitatedly over the air with his hands on his hips.

"But it _hasn't_," she replied, getting tired of hearing this quite a lot now. "And, we don't have medical officers with us- I don't need them to hold my hand, nor do we need to be sent back when one of us has a damn scratch."

The visible part of his face remained blank as he vanished again and reappeared above West's arm. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Don't worry, Zeta- she won't. It's Alaska, you know how challenging she prefers to be," joked Alabama.

"So what if I like to take part in a bit of the action?" she snapped, but not without a lopsided grin.

"Whatever," he chuckled. "Just go in and get it over with."

She sighed and entered the bright room, where a few other agents, including Ohio, were on metal pallets covered with thin linen sheets. How she hated how uncomfortable they were and how the medics used such scientific and complicated terms to describe such easy things. It was all she could do not to make a foul face as she went over to one herself.

A silverish-white and very light armor clad soldier with a glacier blue visor came over to her, and the urge to scowl became greater.

"Agent Alaska," the medic, a female, greeted her curtly. She gave her a short nod as a simple response.

"Were there any instances that I should know about first off?"

Alaska held back the urge to make a smart remark of _'No, everything went perfectly fucking peachy, thanks for asking!' _and bit her tongue before mentioning the event when she stormed through the 'Insurrectionists' and the formerly unknown scout, who Alabama had specified as 'Felix.'

The medic nodded slowly and wrote what she said on a datapad with a stylus.

"No bullets taken?"

"No," Alaska said calmly back.

The rest of the typical medical procedure continued on, the medic asking to see the scar on her upper arm and taking a quick scan of her shoulder's inner tissues, all the while using the usual damn precise terms; Alaska's impulse to glare became stronger as the time lengthened.

She reluctantly stared at the light that the medic was boring into her eye, trying not to squint. The medic wrote something across the datapad with her stylus once more, then attached the magnetized penlike item to the pad. "Okay. I guess you check out; you can go," she stated finally with a glance upwards. Alaska, however, had already jumped impatiently from the cot with a hasty "Thanks."

It wasn't that she hated the medical officers- she just disliked being so dependent on others, and she couldn't really help that. At least she hadn't earned herself a speech from them as she had from Zeta about her unit; she knew the risks of not using an A.I, but she found them somewhat acceptable.

She actually didn't want an artificial intelligence unit, and in all honesty, it was mostly since she was afraid of having another personality in her head; she really did fear it quite a bit and had logically kept these thoughts away from Zeta and the other units.

Alaska walked as quickly to the door as she could without drawing attention to herself and out the open door.

She looked at West, still leaning against the doorframe, and now talking to Ohio, who Alaska had managed to miss leaving. Zeta's dark, small figure was sitting on West's shoulder, arms wrapped around his legs and hood still low over his eyes.

She wondered what it was like, having somebody else inside your mind. Could they tell what you were thinking, as though they listened to your thoughts? She was probably just being paranoid, she told herself, and brushed it off, hiding a small shudder that had coarsed slightly down her spine.

"See you guys later," she said, not bothering to join the conversation between Alabama and the other two and heading once again to the mess hall. She eventually heard three sets of feet behind her and fell back a slight bit to listen to them with a smile she couldn't help.


	20. Class

**Freelancer Classroom, Mother Of Invention, **

_**Two days after the previous chapter's events**... _

Alaska resisted the yawn rising in her throat as the Councilor's put-someone-to-sleep voice drifted through her head and she kicked her feet back and forth, careful not to let them skim the floor in case the shuffling sound earned her a lecture from one of their superiors. She glanced at a digital watch on her wrist under the desk she shared with another agent, Arizona- a khaki-and-maroon C.Q.B. chestplated and otherwise standard-armor clad male soldier, who was currently not onboard the Invention.

A sudden outbreak of laughter came from behind her and she glowered up at the cause of it: a steely-gray and purple-tinged blue armored Spartan, who looked evenly with a bit of apology written in his features back at her along with Hawaii, Louisiana and Colorado, who were still laughing a bit; Wisconsin looked rather like someone who had made an amusing comment, but without meaning to.

"Agent Wisconsin," the Councilor said, stopping in the middle of his drone, "if you please wouldn't in the classroom."

The others obediently stopped laughing with embarrassed smiles now intertwined with their expressions. She thought she heard a mutter of "Sorry," escape from Colorado as his snickering subsided and Alaska turned to face the large screen in the front of the classroom.

She had to be placed in front of Wisconsin, of all the people- at least in A.I. theory; when the project had started, she had been in a class consisting of York, Wash, Carolina, Hawaii- who'd been added to her current class with her, Maine, Connecticut, D.C, Puerto Rico, Florida, Wyoming, North, and South. Summing it up, most of them had all drifted apart quite a bit. The class now contained West, Wisconsin, Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana, and, of course, Hawaii; Tennessee and Kansas were in a separate class.

The projected plasma screen in front of them all showed a graph of a brain, and bullet points with information under them were here and there across it; next to it was a pale, holographic form of a human: an A.I.

The large metal shutters in front of the window to the training room were drawn, and Alaska looked out at the board for a brief second; Carolina was in first place, as always, with York and the twins right behind her.

She looked at the watch again and sighed quickly; just a few minutes left she had to bear through until it was over. Jersey rolled her hazel eyes to Alaska's left as she did so, Mu's light gray form of a human male with a heavy coat apparently sitting lazily above her shoulder, a barely noticeable smirk on his pale face.

The Councilor cleared his throat slightly and continued on with the long lesson. "As you can see, class... the intelligence... not _entirely_ artificail... technically, though... can be projected as coded or as it pleases... fragments..."

She perked up at the part he mentioned 'fragments.' She had always been a bit confused as to why the units of the project were called that.

"Sir," she said, raising her hand, "why exactly do you refer to the A.I. as fragments?" She made quote mark sign with her fingers around the last word and arching her eyebrow.

He stared calmly at her from the front of the room. "Well," he explained in his typical, flat tone, "our A.I. are not complete units, as logic would dictate. We of course have a full unit- the original. We create more based off of it."

At that moment, the Director walked into the classroom briskly; the agents immediatley sat board-straight with increased attention- at least, those who had been slouching did.

"Counsilor," he said in his throaty, southern accent-tinted voice. "May I please borrow a few of your agents?"

"Of course, sir. But what for?"

"I will keep the details contained within myself and the agents in question," he replied shortly. "Hawaii, Alabama, and Alaska, please come with me."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw West throw her a questioning look. She looked over at him and furrowed her eyebrows quizzically and gave him a shrug before she placed her helmet on her head and stood up from her seat along with Alabama and Hawaii, who looked as clueless as she felt. Kansas was revealed to be waiting outside in the hall for them, his own helmet over his head.

"Sir?" Alabama asked as he exited the classroom. "What are we doing? Is something wrong?"

"Some of the items you agents found have been examined," answered the Director stiffly.

Hawaii gave Alaska a sarchastic _well-that-was-specific _face as he turned around, masking it from the Director by passing the movement off as turning to equip his helmet. Alaska slugged him in his shoulder as a response, which achieved a small push back from him in retort. Alabama chose to join in on the small fight, elbowing both of them in their stomachs as they followed the Dircetor's thin form. They kept on exchanging the slight nudges and jabs down the corridors behind the Director, careful not to let him see them doing so.

Kansas, who had stayed away from the friendly fight beside him, said, "Are we heading to the labs, Sir?"

"Affirmative."

_Great_, Alaska thought as she aimed a barely notciceable kick at the front of Alabama's ankle. _At least that's not very far from the classrooms._

Hawaii made to shove both of them, but Alabama moved forward at the last second, making Alaska collide into someone coming through from another hallway to their right and topple over with a grunt.

The person she had run into was evidently Wash, who was on one foot, his arms waving frantically as he tried not to fall over, but to no avail; he fell over on his back, and New York and North Dakota, who were behind him, laughed.

"Agents!" the Director snapped as Alaska got back up to her feet. "I expect you to act mature and behaved!"

"Shit! I am _so _sorry, Wash!" she muttered sheepishly, extending a hand to help him while North, York, Kansas, Hawaii, and Alabama chuckling. He accepted it hesitantly and used the wall for balance as he propped himself up with help from her.

Alaska herself broke out laughing even though she had indefinitely been embarrassed in front of the Director, whose eyes were livid behind his glasses.

Their laughter trailed away, however, as they saw they quelling look the Director was giving them all.

"Proceed," he said dryly to North, York, and Wash; they did so rather hurriedly, going down the way Alaska and the others had come while the others continued on, a bit shamefully towards the labs in silence.

When they entered the room, a gaggle of geeks were gathered around a table with their backs to them, some of them fiddling with something, others recording things on datapads.

One turned and nodded his head respectfully in acknowledgement to the group that came through the door and moved aside, showing the long weapon that resembled a hammer with a blade on the end Kansas had found; the gun with neon-blue, possibly, plasma ammunition was beside it; the long sword-shaped which was seemingly made of light- or at least the handle of it- was laying by them; a long, violet-hued gun Alabama had used was on the table as well. The geeks began to rant about the items that lay across the long table, Alaska only somewhat listening. She looked closer at the weapons, getting lost inside her own thoughts as she gazed at them.

"...the firearms seem to run on a slightly more condensed variation of plasma," she heard as one of the geeks continued to explain. "However, the sword acquired by Agent Hawaii is evidently a retractable and extendable, solid form of energy-"

"What about the hammer thing?" Kansas interjected.

The scientist paused, a bit agitated at having been interrupted. "We don't know exactly how it's powered. However, as I'm sure you know, Agent Kansas, that when this weapon strikes something, a forceful gravitational effect occurs, sending most if not all things near it inside a four-to-six foot radius away from it-"

"Yeah," Kansas said. "We definitely noticed; it pretty much destroyed a Mongoose in full motion with one hit."

The geek looked sternly at him, his arms folded over his chest. "Indeed," he said before continuing.

"The longer gun resembles a sniper rifle upon closer inspection," he motioned to the weapon of Alabama's, "while the other one seems to be a cross of a rifle and, slightly a handgun in its structure."

"There is something strange about the 'sword,' though: it simply... it doesn't allow any of us to use it."

"Dude, really?" Hawaii said. "All you do is press the power button-"

"You don't think we tried that?" the geek retorted impatiently.

"Here, lemme see it," Hawaii said, snatching the sword's handle from the table. He made a whipping motion with it in hand, causing the brilliant, solid shards of light blue plasma to form into the shape of a sword. The scientists stared at it, in curious awe if anything, some of them simply gaping at it.

The Director, who had stayed back, spoke up. "How would you like to test these items further?"

Alaska could tell that a grin was creeping up more than one of their faces; they all know what he meant, and that was a training match.

"Perhaps that'll wear the energy you guys have for a fight out," Kansas suggested.

"You say that like you're not going to be a part of it," Alaska said maliciously. She could tell that he had paled behind his visor, and her grin grew a bit wider.

**(Sorry this took so long; the files kept getting lost before I was able to save them, and once I finally did get a file of this saved, someone decided to delete it -eye roll-)**


	21. Lockdown-paint Match

Alaska stood next to Kansas on one side o the training room floor, gun somehow loaded with lockdown paint rounds that had been modified to resemble the typical plasma ammunition of it. Kansas was holding the hammer in both of his hands, looking a bit unwilling to fight according to his body language: he was gripping the long handle rather tightly, and his head traveled more than it often did, and his foot was bobbing up and back down just slightly, but very quickly. Hawaii and Alabama stood opposite with their weapons ready; Hawaii's sword had had to be covered in the paint to prevent any accidental impalements or any permanent injuries.

"Test Matchup between agents Alaska and Kansas against Alabama and Hawaii," the A.I. of the ship, F.I.L.L.S. said over the speaker, the flat, feminine voice echoing around the training room. Said agents became suddenly attentive, shoulders hunched, knees bent, both gripping the somewhat familiar weapons tightly. Kansas' grip was a bit out of nerves if not excitement, while Alaska's was for the most part out of glee; she didn't get to fight with the others too often, (not that she saw them as enemies or a rivals, but...) and she quite liked to be on the offense every once in a while, and he was prone to being on the defense, a reason he preferred his armor's strong armor-lock ability. And when he wasn't defending or weaving around hits, the attacks he used could be very elaborate, and it was always a bit of fun in general.

"Begin in three..." Alaska aimed her gun at Alabama's visor.

"Two..." Kansas stood oddly stiff, hammer in hands beside her.

"One! Round start!"

As large stone blocks rose from the floor to create the standard lockdown paint assimilation, Alaska bolted at them with her finger on the trigger, though not shooting. Hawaii came at her with his sword extended and his arm drawn back. Alabama had jumped on top o one of the blocks as they rose and fired at Alaska; though she was able to avoid the shots, most of his bullets just barely missed her knees and ankles.

Hawaii's sword came arcing down in front of her face and she jumped over his next stab that had been aimed at her chest along with Hawaii himself, catching hold of his free hand as she came down. He stumbled as he was dragged backwards by her as she landed and she coated the backside of his torso and sword-wielding hand, his left, in lockdown paint. She felt a quick and sharp sting in her shoulder and the side of her neck before both spots went numb; Alabama had gotten a clear couple of shots on her. She quickly slid behind one of the stone blocks as lockdown paint splattered on the ground beside her and hardened; she switched her gun from the arm that had gotten hit to her other. As she made to poke out from her hiding spot, Kansas came hurtling past her and landed on his back, sliding on the smooth floor until he made contact, headfirst, with a block and creating a small crack up it. His hammer went flying and landed with a heavy thud on the floor away from him.

"Ow..." he groaned as he rubbed his head and sat up slowly. He barely had time to dive out of the way of a paint-fusillade that had come from Alabama.

She looked at him, then nodded at the hammer that was lying on the floor. He got up and nodded back to show he understood. He crouched down, preparing to sprint over to it while Alaska made taunting movements, poking her hand out from behind the block and having it narrowly missed by Alabama.

"You ready?" she muttered to Kansas.

"Let's do this shit," he replied.

They jumped from behind the shelter the block had offered, Alaska going first and holding down the trigger while aiming at nothing in particular as she ran sideways after Kansas, mainly serving as a distraction for him.

Alaska ran after him and performed a well-timed jump as Kansas swung down his hammer and was sent flying upward; she activated the magnets in her boots, sticking to the ceiling and following Hawaii's hard-to-predict movements across the floor below her. Alabama took notice of her and started to target her, allowing Kansas and herself to take the chance of his distraction.

She ran on the ceiling until she was positioned just above the cobalt-red armored Spartan below her. She deactivated her boots, falling rapidly toward him. She kicked him and propelled herself back, using his face as an opposite surface.

"Hey." Hawaii's voice said suddenly from behind her. Before she even had a chance to turn around completely, he had punched her across the face and used his hypertrophy with the attack, making her shoot backwards, skidding on the floor as she hit it. From an upside-down angle she saw him bolting at her with his sword. She rolled away as his sword swung down.

She caught a glimpse of Kansas bringing his hammer crashing down behind Alabama, who managed to get a final shot in at Alaska before hitting the training room wall violently and sliding down it, unconscious.

As she made to raise her gun, the fast blur of the neon-pink paint that came from Alabama knocked it out of her hand.

Hawaii caught the gun in his free hand and pointed it at her.

"Ah, fu-" she was cut short by the rapidfire that issued from her gun and her torso and visor became plastered with the bright paint. She fell on her back with a painful thump, her vision completely obscured.

_Oh, fucking hell! _she screamed inwardly, feeling as though needles were entering the places she'd been shot and almost instantly numbing- it was actually quite a curious sensation to be feeling something and nothing at the same time; nonetheless, what she did feel wasn't very pleasant. _Goddamn, my god, that stings like a fucking bitch!_

She felt what she assumed was Hawaii's sword scrape harshly across the length of her left leg.

_At least I can still see the HUD, _ she thought with a grin; a pale yellow dot, which signified Kansas, was approaching the dark teal one, Hawaii, that was next to her. Even if she couldn't see what was going on, her motion tracker could depict what was happening - at least, for the most part. The two dots circled eachother for a while, Alaska hearing the taunts of friendly competition in the form of the two said agents' voices. A split-second later, the dots ran to the same point, which was directly at the other; a series of shots volleyed from her plasma rifle.

The loud, dull explosion-like thud of Kansas' hammer came, and she felt herself being sent backwards forcefully. The sound of armor clattering against the floor signaled that Hawaii had also gotten hit, but wasn't out just yet. His boots pounded across the floor, the teal dot moving quickly to the pale yellow, and she heard something light- possibly her gun- being thrown to the ground beside her. The two guys were obviously in close range combat at the moment, so she couldn't exactly tell what was happening.

The unmistakable sound of Kansas' armor-lock occurred before another loud thud of the hammer and a set of armor falling heavily to the floor. She noticed that it was the pale yellow dot fly away, rather than the teal.

After a short pause, F.I.L.L.S' voice came over the speaker: "Round complete. Point awarded to agents Alabama and Hawaii."

She heard the usual team of medics and armor experts that came after a lockdown-paint match bustle through the opening doors.

_Fuuuuuuuuck, _ thought Alaska.


	22. Kappa

_**Half an hour later...**_

"Really? The hammer to the spine was fucking necessary?" Alabama said as he gingerly stretched his back.

The four of them were standing outside the armory in their standard black underarmor suits, waiting for the paint's effects to be removed from their power armor they had torn up; three of those goddamn paint matches... Alaska and Kansas had won one of the matches, while Alaska and Alabama had shot at each other until they had both dropped, thus nobody achieving a point for the final round.

"Hey," Kansas said calmly, "you pelted me with the fucking paint like nobody's business."

"Not our fault you guys sucked," Alaska and Hawaii said. Their eyes made contact and narrowed.

"Jinx! Double jinx! Triple jinx! Quadruple jinx!" they said simultaneously, their voices rising with each 'jinx'.

"Pentuple jinx!" Alaska practically shouted in her urgency to say it first, Hawaii's eyes still narrowed, but a grin spread on his face.

"Too bad they took the weapons back before we could continue," said Kansas.

"Eh- well, whaddya gonna do?" Alaska said.

"Dude, I just wanna know how they loaded your guys' guns with lockdown paint," Hawaii said skeptically and Alabama punched him. He gave a small yelp of "Ow!" and a murderous glare in Alabama's direction.

"You're jinxed-" he started, but was cut off by Alaska.

"Our guns? Dude, did you not see your fucking sword?"

"Well, it _did_ take them a while to modify them..." Alabama said, slugging Hawaii again as he opened his mouth to speak; Hawaii shot him a mutinous glare.

"So, you guys hear about North Dakota?" a soldier passing by asked his buddy. He shook his head in response.

"Used his equipment - without an A.I."

"What?!" said guy #2, shocked.

His friend nodded impressively. "Yup. No line back to here."

"And after what happened to the other guy - Utah..."

"Wait... the fuck happened to Utah?" asked the first guy.

Alaska listened in to their conversation until they turned down the hall. _Sounds like something that West might bitch about_, she thought.

Hawaii tapped her on the shoulder. "Okay, seriously - can you fuckin' unjinx me? I'm getting -ow!- tired of these two -fuck!- punching me." he muttered agitatedly, his reactions interrupting his own self.

"Hawa-"

"Nope!" Kansas said cheerfully with a large grin on his face. "Doesn't count if you use his state-name!"  
Hawaiiscowled at him, though Alaska could tell he was biting his tongue only because Kansas was unaware she knew his real name.

She rolled her eyes and smirked as she said, "James, James, James."

"Oh, Godammit." Alabama sighed, his fist dropping to his side. "I was having fun."

"Your name is James?" said Kansas. "And how did you know, Alaska?"

This time, Hawaii slugged him - not in the arm, but in a specifically sensitive area. He doubled up, clutching where he'd been hit in pain.

"Revenge, motherfucker!"

"Erk-! You dick!" he rasped into his chest while Alaska chortled; Kansas backed away from Hawaii warily.

"You're next," Hawaii taunted at his slowly retreating form.

"Oh shit," he said as he turned on his heel. Before he'd even taken a step, Hawaii had drove his knuckles into his gut.

Alaska snickered behind her hand, stopping only at the scowls that Alabama and Kansas shot her - and the malicious grin on Hawaii's face.

"Oh no." she said, realization slipping to her. He wanted a bit of revenge for her jinxing him. She didn't have time to do much before Hawaii gave her a blunt kick in her stomach.

It was Kansas and Alabama's turn to laugh now.

"I think we might just have immaturity problems," Alabama said, suddenly solemn.

"Probably." Alaska agreed, equally serious, rubbing the spot she'd been kicked at. She dropped the 'mature' attitude as she said, "Why? 'Cause screw you, that's why!"

Kansas rolled his eyes.

"Hey!" yelled someone behind them.

Alaska truned around to see an agitated Ohio coming toward them quickly.

"Where in the hell have you three been?" he snapped at Alaska, Hawaii and Kansas. "Tennessee's getting her A.I. implanted - right now!"

"What?!" she yelped. She cursed under her breath as she started to sprint to the medical bay with the other three, leaving Alabama hanging back curiously on his own._

The small group of four arrived, panting a bit, at the med-bay door where the implantation operations for A.I. took place.

"Goddamn, you guys are slow," drawled West as Kansas made to peek into the room and jerked his thumb to the regular medical room. "They already finished with Tenn. She came 'round not too long ago."

"Don't be such a dick," Hawaii said, scowling at West as he went through the door.

Tennessee was sitting up on one of the cots with her hands around her ankles. A small, soft, cherry-red glow was visible just above her knees.

"Tenn?" asked Alaska. "You feeling okay?"

"Fine, I guess," she replied lazily, rubbing the lower part of the back of her neck where the neural implants were generally placed. She smiled wider and said, "Hey, Kappa, y'wanna say hi to everyone?"

The glow suddenly went to her left shoulder. It looked male; he had bright red, extremely messy hair that matched the rest of his body, and digits coarsed down his hands and forearms. A wide grin was spread across his face, and his wide, highlighter-yellow eyes were dancing with hapiness as he waved at the newcomers. He bore similarities to Carolina's A.I. unit, Sigma, Alaska realized as she thought about it.

"Hi!" he said enthusiatically, his eyes flicking between them, drinking in his surroundings; as he waved at them, Alaska noticed that no digits ran along his palms.

"How 'bout you guys let your A.I. greet the new guy?" suggested Ohio to Hawaii and West.

West grimaced. "Nope. We can't, and you know that perfectly well."

"No I don't - I don't _have _an A.I, West." Ohio said, a tinge of jealousy entering his tone.

"You could at least pay attention in class, then," he replied.

"You think we've got nothing better to do than to sit around on our asses and listen to drones like we're in school or some shit?" Hawaii said, rolling his eyes.

"Nice warm greeting, guys," Kansas said sarcastically as he came closer to Tenn and bent down so that he was eye-level with the A.I. "Hey, Kappa. I'm Kansas. My friend over there in the white and blue, she's Alaska."

"Hullo," Kappa cheerily.

"And the three bickering over there," she added, "are West, Hawaii, and Ohio - hey! No fighting!"

"Look who's talking!" Hawaii said loudly over his shoulder.

"You started it!"

"No, I didn't! You hit me, remember?"

"You gave a dirty look, _remember_?"

"That wasn't even directed at you-"

"Jeez," she interjected. "Calm down, I'm just giving you shit... But, you did start it."

"No I didn't!" he repeated a bit louder.

"D'you have any proof?"

Hawaii opened his mouth to retort, but was cut short by a series of giggles coming from Tenn and Kappa.

"Why does everyone keep interrupting me?" Hawaii sighed, barely audible over the sound of West and Ohio's argument and Tenn's residing giggling.

"Oh, come _on_, guys." Kansas said. "Really? Are you always fighting?"

West turned from Ohio to face him and asked, rather incredulously, "How have you not picked that up in the past couple of months?"

"Whatever. I'm gonna go get a drink; be right back." With that, Kansas shuffled past them and out into the labyrinth of halls.

Tenn got steadily up from the metal pallet-like cot and walked over to the remainder of the group. Kappa had retreated to her armor, no longer projecting himself.

"Hey," Ohio said, "where'd the little guy go?"

"Tired." Tenn replied. "Can't saw I blame him; bit of a long operation for both of us."

"You woke up quite a bit quicker than patients typically do after something like that," noted West.

"Yeah. Took you, what, three hours or so? Maybe more?" offered Alaska

"Yeah, something like that. Hawaii took about seven, though that's just because he's kinda lazy."

"Up. Yours." Hawaii snapped as Psi came to his shoulder; her catlike eyes were thinner than normal, and her mouth was cut in a tight line across her silver-gray face.

"That was rather rude, West Virginia."

He groaned. "Don't call me that."

Her face was indifferent. "I'm sorry. That is what name you were assigned. If you don't wish me to adress you as this-"

"West. God. Dammit. It's. West." he said grudgingly.

"Of course it is." Psi smirked before she logged off, disappearing in a small flash of silver.

"Don't give me that look," he snarled at Hawaii, who had a somewhat smug look on his face. He shrugged, pretending not to know what he was referring to.

Alaska noticed Ohio and Tenn walking over to the still-open door and followed them, Hawaii and West squabbling in her wake.

Ohio pushed open the door, and was soaked from a source to the right. Medics' heads swiveled in their direction.

"WHAT - WHAT THE FUCK?!" he spluttered around a mouthful of water, sweeping sopping wet hair from his eyes quickly. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

"I said I was getting a drink," chortled someone as they stepped into Alaska's view: Kansas. He was holding an empty plastic water bottle that had been squeezed tightly around the middle. "I thought you might want something too."

Ohio grinned forcedly and said through gritted teeth, "Well, thanks, but I think it's time to return the favor."

Kansas took off laughing, a dripping Ohio chasing after him.

"_Get back here_!" the others heard him shout.

All that answered them was Kansas' fading laugh and two sets of heavy and fast footfalls as they went farther and farther down the corridor.


	23. Chapter 23

Freelancer Living Quarter 02, Mother Of Invention,

Five days later..._

Alaska was sprawled out on her bunk, sleeping. It wasn't like there was much else to do; unfortunately Hawaii, West, and Tenn had been out on seperate missions since the past day, and Kansas and Ohio were busy doing something else. A volley of knocks came from the door, and she jolted up, hitting her head on the bottom of Arkansas' bunk. Another series reached her ears.

"Yeah, I hear you, just hang on," she said loudly as she rubbed the spot where her head had made contact with the bunk and dragged herself up; yet another volley of knocks came, a bit more urgent sounding.

"Hang on!" she repeated aggrivatedly, unlocking the door and grabbing the handle. She cracked the door open and saw a khaki and red trimmed soldier standing with his knuckles in the air as if he was going to try knocking again.

"What do you want, Arizona?" she groaned.

"Nice to see you again, too," he said.

"When did you get back?" she asked before opening the door completely.

"Two days ago."

"What were you doing?"

"We were sent into some Insurrection activity and we quelled it a bit."

"With a shitload of explosives from you, I presume?"

"Maybe. But anyways, c'mon. Mission."

"Yes!" she exclaimed, instantly perking up and her spine jumping from a slouch to board-straight. "Fucking finally! Something exciting!" She closed the door on Arizona, rushing over to her armor.

Five minutes later, they had rushed their way to the debriefing room (with many complaints and implorings for her to slow down from Arizona,) where Alaska waited for the remainder of the group impatiently, tapping her foot.

"Wish they'd hurry up," she sighed. "What are we supposed to be doing, again?"

"I dunno," he replied as he gave her shrug.

"Well it's been over a week since I revieved an assignment, so my patience is a bit short. Who're we waiting for?"

"Louisiana went to get the others, Alaska. Just calm down, no need to be anxious... as of yet."

"As of yet?" she repeated, her voice coated with sarcasm.

"Telling you that isn't of any use, though, is it?" he said as he slipped his helmet off, revealing a smirk and a set of brown rolling eyes. The already usually untidy dirty-blonde hair stood up from being under his helmet and became even messier as he ran his fingers through it.

"What's with the smug look?" she snapped.

"What's with the pissy attitude?" he retorted calmly, the grin still on his face.

"It's not being pissy, I just have a goddamn hair-trigger."

He sighed. "Two words: No patience."

"Two words for you, too: No. Shit."

"Wonder how long it takes for one to figure that out," he goaded.

"Hey, why don't you suck a-"

"Dear god, Alaska," said the unmistakable voice of Ohio, "what the fuck?"

"What do you mean? She's always like this," Kansas' voice drifted over to them.

"Hey, up yours," she snapped, looking over at Kansas and Ohio. Kansas had a receding black eye from the day he'd drenched Ohio; they had gotten into a tussle, resulting in the now faint bruise.

"At least I don't give friends black eyes," she retorted. "... Not... on purpose... most of the time..."

"That's reassuring," said a sea-foam green soldier with black trim in a quiet voice; the armor she wore was a heavier variant of the Mark VI.

"Hello, Lou," Arizona said, walking over to her. He put an arm around her neck, making her look a bit smaller than she already was.

"Come on, cut it out," she muttered, ducking from under his arm. Alaska grinned under her helmet as Louisiana started to bat Arizona off.

"At least we're not going back to Chorus," muttered Ohio.

"Thank god," Kansas groaned. A quick feeling of angry disgust swooped through Alaska's stomach as she remembered the transmission thay had sent to their Pelican.

"I honestly wish we could get revenge sometime," she flared. "_Especially _that scout."

"Why him specifically?" asked Ohio in a low voice.

"Because his partner was at least, and I use this next word as loosely as I can, respectable." she replied.

"Alaska, calm down," Kansas said.

"What do you mean 'calm down'? I. Am _perfectly._ Calm," she said quickly and angrily. The others looked over at her curiously. "Don't judge me," she shot at the four staring. Louisiana took a catious half-step behind Arizona.

"Oh, she won't bite," Kansas reassured her jokingly.

"Don't count on what you have and haven't experienced with me," Alaska snapped.

"It's times like this that one may want to restrain her," Ohio chuckled. She removed her helmet and gave him a solemn, deadpanned look.

"Don't you remember when I helped you out for the first time? Fought that fucker, tooth and nail."

"Wait, how did you two meet?" asked Kansas curiously.

"Before we were invited, he helped me out of a cinch with a CO, then West and I saved his ass later on," she said.

"'Helped you out of a cinch'? What kind of cinch?" Arizona cut in. Ohio and Alaska were about to reply when the door to the room opened and the Councilor emerged from it. They ceased their chatter and entered the dimly lit room. Alaska glanced at the leaderboard as she went - not out of hope that she was on it, just to see if any changes had occured; nothing much other than North Dakota was now a spot above South. The Director stood facing the board, his hands behind his back. The Freelancers stood behind him, side-by-side at attention.

"Agents," he said with a steely note as he turned around. She saw him glance at the door panel in an upset way. Kansas, Arizona and Alaska looked quickly over at it; it looked as though it'd been punched recently. Hard; she looked at the board once again. _South Dakota taken down a notch and a busted panel? Mystery solved_, she thought.

"While I must say that I am not exactly pleased with some of your previous missions," the Director said, snapping Alaska back to attention with a sharp twinge of annoyance. "You have a new assignment." _Please not Chorus, _Alaska heard her subconscious say in spite of herself. _Not Chorus_, it repeated. _Don't be a fucking wimp_, she scolded herself, drifting away from her attention once more.

"...Agent Kansas will be leading this mission," the Director's voice found its way into her ears. "While the rest of you will follow him and his orders. Am I clear on this?"

"Yes, Sir," they chorused hastily.

"You will be sent into some... heavier forces today to retrieve something on a planet called Sidewinder-"

"Sidewinder? The ice planet?" Alaska interrupted.

The Director scowled at her before answering. "That is correct, Agent. Sidewinder is an ice planet." He resumed explaning, seeming a bit more annoyed.

She grimaced inwardly; she wasn't exactly a huge fan of the cold. Still, better than Chorus... For the rest of the briefing, she drifted in and out of focus, occasionally perking up at certain phrases like "information" and "location of blah-blah-blah is".

"Dismissed!" he barked harshly, and she slightly jumped at the suddenness. After a chorus of "Yes Sir!" the group marched themselves out of the room.

Kansas tapped her on the shoulder. "You weren't paying attention, were you?"

She shrugged. "For the most part, nope," she said, making the 'p' pop.

Arizona sighed behind her. "Please explain 'for the most part.' What did you listen to?"

Alaska slipped her helmet on before she answered. "Basic stuff - information, heavier forces, Sidewinder... retrieve something... Kansas is leading, y'know... the basic shit."

"Uh-huh," Arizona taunted.

"I _do _pay attention sometimes," she snapped, swiveling around to face him and bumping into Ohio. "-sorry!"

"Hey, cool it, you two!" Kansas scolded as the two stood, nose-to-nose, glaring at each other. Louisiana took hold of Arizona's left arm and dragged him back as Ohio grabbed Alaska's shoulders, just in case he needed to restrain her.

"We aren't going to be dealing with this, you two!" said Ohio. "You might not like each other, but _not. Today._" Alaska merely grumbled under her breath and shrugged herself out of her friend's hold. She saw Louisiana release Arizona's arm hesitantly out of the corner of her eye.

"Whatever," she muttered.

"Oh, come _on_!" Ohio hissed to her. "What'd he ever do to you?"

"Is that any of your business?" she snapped unintentionally.

"As a friend, I do believe it's my business just as well as it's yours." he retorted calmly.

"Then let me correct you on this specific matter," she growled back.

"Save it for the mission, you two," Kansas instructed. "No attacking anyone until we reach the battlefield - and no friendly fire when we get there!" he added quickly.

"Oh, c'mon, Kansas," Arizona groaned. "She and I dislike each other, but we wouldn't contemplate murdering the other just for fun!"

"Rare occasion when we actually agree on something," Alaska said.

"Evidently so," Louisiana said, speaking audibly for the first time since she'd arrived.

A quarter hour later of bickering from Alaska and Arizona and general chatter among the others, they had gathered supplies and weapons and were hurrying down to the hangar bay.

A pilot was waiting for them at the door. "Sidewinder?" he asked in a heavy Russian accent.

"Yessir," answered Kansas.

"Well, let's go then," he said, waving his hand to motion the group to follow.


	24. Chapter 24

"C'mon, elaborate on how you guys met," Kansas said.

Alaska groaned. "Dear god, why d'you want to know about it so much?"

"Because I'm interested," he said, shrugging. "We're friends - at least that's what I like to consider us - but we have next to no clue about each others' pasts."

"If I tell you, would you refrain from asking me further?" she sighed.

"Well, what further purpose would he have for continuing to ask?" Ohio said.

"You could always repeat it to annoy her-"

"Up yours, Arizona," Alaska said before beginning.

**-**_**flashback (for the sake of the story)-**_

_"You... did... what, Private?" a dumbstruck and furious Captain Feyne growled at Miya among the battered group of seven at attention before him. She did her best to hold her deadpan look and not flinch or glare at him. "How many times must you do this?! You __**NEVER charge into the fray**__! Do you want to end up __**dead**__?!"_

_"But, Sir-" she began, but her CO cut her short._

_"No more buts, Private!" Feyne barked._

_"Please, Sir," a man with a thin, pale face and sleek raven-black hair said. "If they hadn't-"_

_"They? What do you mean by they, Liueteniant Meyers?!"_

_She shot a quick glare at Meyers; she saw a slight flicker of guilt and impatiance flash across his dark gray eyes. She stamped on his foot; had to rat them out - damn his constant keep-to-the-rules attitude! He just had to tell Feyne about what happened._

_"If they hadn't done it, we'd be dead," Meyers continued to protest, but his words fell only on deaf ears._

_Feyne's face was white with absolute rage. "So, you are telling me... that not only did she bolt in," he growled, jerking a thumb at Miya, "but more of you did?!"_

_Meyer's eyes traveled downwards a bit shamefully as he muttered, "yes, Sir." A handful of their fellow soldiers shifted uncomfortably - the ones who'd rushed in with her._

_"Hold up a sec!" someone yelled from a distance. She looked away from Feyne to see a man with light brown hair and a scruff of a beard rushing towards the small group of soldiers and the Captain. Hey skidded to a halt in front of them, panting, resting his knuckles on his knees. "Sir... I... need... to tell you... something," he gasped, his chest heaving._

_"And exactly who are you?" Feyne asked the man impatiently._

_"I'm... I'm from another squad," he replied as his breath began to even out and he straightened his back to look at Feyne eye-to-eye. "You see, when they 'charged in,' it created a distraction for the rest of us and we were able to pull some good information from the enemies' systems, so the Colonel wants to see you, Sir."_

_Captain Feyne considered to man for a while before grunting. He waved a hand at the group of soldiers to dismiss them with the white-faced glare still on his face. He shot an extra tight-lipped grimace over his shoulder at Miya as if to say, __**you got off easy this time **__before heading off to the other side of the camp. The group disassembled, relieved not to have recieved any punishment other than a scolding from Feyne. Miya nudged Meyers and nodded in the direction of the tawny-haired man, who had rested his hands on his knees once more as he caught the rest of his breath. Meyers raised an eyebrow at her, and she nodded towards the man again; he tilted his head a bit, and she rolled her eyes before giving up on trying to convey the message and walked over to the soldier._

_"Hey," she said as she approached, making him look up at her before glancing quickly in both directions._

_"Me?" he asked as she approached him._

_"Yeah," she replied. "Thanks for that save."_

_"Eh." He shrugged._

_"So, Tumbleweed," she said, eyeing his messy tawny hair. "You have a name?"_

_"Just call me Patrick," he said, evidently disliking the nickname Miya had provided._

_"Miya," she introduced._

_"Samuel Meyers," her friend said from behind her. His hand came in front of her, and the man, Patrick, accepted it and shook with Meyers. "My friends call me Sam."_

_**-**__**Aaaand, we're back in the Pelican**_**-**

"Tumbleweed?" Kansas said as Alaska paused.

Ohio sighed. "Yup."

"Your hair does kind of look like that," he teased Ohio, who groaned before Alaska continued on.

_**-Northern Ottowa, Canada, Earth; a month and a half later-**_

_Meyers threw out a hand across Miya's shoulder to prevent her from going any further, and she glared at him._

_"I can do this - I can handle myself, Sam," she hissed at him quietly as he peeked around the corner of the make-do shelter the road-barrier provided for them. He gave her a stern look once he'd looked away from the area farther on._

_"You're not even actively trying to hold back from running in, are you?" he muttered to her, nodding at the small clump of soldiers behind them._

_"We're marines, not performers," she whined quietly, her footsteps over the tough gravel muffled by a layer of dislodged dust. She ducked down behind a rather huge piece of rubble with Meyers. "As long as we get the job done, why does it matter how we do it?"_

_He shot her a more critical look. "If even one thing were to go wrong, our whole system could be fucked up," he reminded her and sighed exasperatedly. "You're a scout, private; you're supposed to gather info, stay back, report on what you found, and come back safely - what passes for safely, anyways."_

_"Well excuse me, __**Lieutenant**__," she hissed back before adding, "goddamn, it's cold here."_

_The group of soldiers continued forward, Meyers occasionally having to stop Miya from going ahead of him when it wasn't necessarry for her to do so. Everything seemed to be perfectly inactive, which was strange on its own; a harsh and still silence filled the air around the sound of gently scuffling feet as the squad scurried from one cover to the next, masked by dust over the ground from demolished buildings._

_Suddenly, a they felt a small vibration eminating from the ground and Meyers perked up beside her and rose to his feet, abondoning the cover that had been provided by a disshelved and upturned group of large rocks._

_"Where are you going?" Miya whisper-yelled into the comm radio at his running form. He gave a quick glance backwards before keeping on, raising his assault rifle a bit higher, but no answer camefrom him. She looked over her shoulder at the other six soldiers, who stared after Sam questioningly, then back to him, then to her fellow soldiers to him again. Finally, she shook her head before bolting after him, keeping up as best as she could._

_"What the hell, dude?" she said between slightly heavy breaths. She could keep up with him fine; he wasn't exactly quick, but it wasn't like she'd taken track - track sucks!_

_Still no answer. Just a blank, somewhat quelling look from him. She knew from this kind of facial expression that she should stop talking - she'd used it many times before herself. She nodded at him and plucked the magnum from the side of her leg in exchange with her own assault rifle, hitching it to her back._

_"Just don't go ahead of me," he muttered to her, quiet as he could as they went on. "I saw something... like a... like a small explosion."_

_"You're sure you saw an explosion?" she whispered back to him a bit doubtfully. "How come we didn't hear anything?"_

_"Might've been a shaped charge, made to cause as little noise possible while effectively doing damage," he proposed as they crouched beside a building with a forceful crack running down it._

_"Shaped chrages? Did I hear that right?" said one of the tailing soldiers through his helmet radio._

_"Affirmative. You heard correctly, but nothings been confirmed. Don't get jumpy... yet."_

_-__**Pelican break (there will be cookies and orange juice... no, I lie)-**_

"You were in Canada?" piped up Louisiana, whose head had jerked up to Alaska with rapt attention ever since she had said-

"Ottowa," she confirmed. "Why?"

"And it was after an attack there?"

Alaska nodded. "Um, yeah. Why d'you ask?"

Lou sat up, her hands gripping her knees. "_'_Cause I'm from there - Ottowa, and I'd been visiting some of my more distant family in Maine... when... it happened. It was originally why I joined the army in the first place." As she said it, her voice wavered slightly, but she kept her head up; Alaska had no doubt that a look of determination lay under her helmet.

"Were you hoping for, y'know," Arizona butt in - it was a wonder that he'd stayed quiet for so long - but Lou interrupted.

"Revenge is always sweet," she said rather distantly as she leaned back into her seat, "and chaos is the prize." Beside her, Arizona rested a hand on her shoulder, much like an older brother, and the Pelican's cabin's occupants were silent for a while. She seemed to come back as she said, "Please, continue. I didn't mean to interrupt you."

She then nodded at the unasked question from Alaska and Arizona, which was, 'Are you okay?'

_**-Northern Ottowa, Canada-**_

_"Yet?" the marine echoed in disbelief. His attitude transferred to a sarcastic one quickly. "You seem very calm about all this... and shaped charges? How would you figure that?"_

_"Are you suggesting what I think you are, Richards?" Miya angrily growled into her own radio._

_"Possibly-" Richards replied, just as aggressively. "Wait... what the hell is - AAAURGH!"_

_She and Meyers whipped around to where the group of marines following them were, or at least, should have been. A large crater stood in between the groups, smoke billowing out from it in a fluffy column of gray and black, while dark soot surrounded the indent, looking like an eloborately and sharply drawn flower drawn with a blunt piece of charcoal._

_"I told you: shaped charges! They were ready for us, and they're here!" Meyers hollered, swilring around madly with his rifle eye-level. Miya rushed over to the column of smoke and jumped the length of the wide crater. Richards must have been blown back by the explosion; he seemed to be unconscious, limp and still with his head sagging down, two soldiers supporting him by his arms. The four marines made movements to shield him from further attacks, drawing battle and assasult rifles, and, in one case, a sniper rifle._

_"Meyers, you sure they're not just motion-sensitive?" She said into her comm._

_"Pretty sure. Otherwise, they would've reacted when we passed over the charge; the operators wanted to have a larger casualty count," he said, tapping her on the shoulder. She whirled around to face him. "Fortunately for us, they only got one. And don't bother with the radios - that'll just alert them further."_

_"One or two of you," Miya said to the clust of soldiers, "stay here, take care of him. The rest of you, come with us."_

_"Come with us?" Meyers repeated. "I wasn't under the impression that we were moving on."_

_"Well, now you know that we are," she said. "Spread out, if any charges are detonated, they'll only get one of us."_

_Two soldiers hauled their unconscious ally behind somewhat sufficient shelter as the other two bid them goodbye before they faced Meyers, looking for instruction._

_"Do as she said," he told them after a seemingly long consideration of their options. "That's the best plan we can hope to achieve."_

_"Yes, Sir!" responded the soldiers quickly._

**-**_**We interrupt this backstory of Agent Alaska to bring you yet another idiotic conversation from the Pelican-**_

"Okay, wait," Arizona said. "Who's this 'Meyers' guy exactly? How close were you two, actually?"

"West," answered Ohio.

"Really? You were all in the same unit?" he asked.

"No, West and I were on team _Arrow_," Alaska said. "_Ohio_ was on Chariot."

"What about Artemis?" Louisiana said quietly. She had brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them comfortably.

"They weren't in contact for that specific mission."

"Oh." She drew her legs closer to her. "Nevermind then."

"Why'd you want to know?"

"Because you hadn't mentioned them. Don't mind it - just continue."

_**-Canada... once more-**_

_Tremors. Tremors were becoming more frequent beneath the running feet of the five soliders, pillars of smoke sometimes erupting near them. It was all that Miya could do to not slow down or look behind her, causing a lag of her reflexes and dullness from worry in her mind. Six feet to her right, orange plumes and white shards of a charge detonating reared up and smoke snaked its way after it._

_"What the hell! Be careful, private!" someone - probably Meyers - said harshly through their built in helmet radio._

_"Hey, if the cost for finishing this mission is losing my recklessness, I'm afraid that I can't really help you with that; I like to think of being reckless is the same thing as having courage. Ignore the fear of the danger and you're set," she replied. A rush of static indicated the response as a heavy sigh, accompannied by a, " God dammit - really?"_

_A tremor bit at her heels once more, ushering her to pick up her pace._

_"STOP! DON'T GO ANY FURTHER!" someone shrieked into the comm. She skidded to a halt and swung her head around to face the rest of the group. There seemed to only be four with them, including herself. "What's going o-"_

_"Get back from there!" Meyers shouted. He was frozen, his gaze was directed at a point to her left, further on. She quickly followed where he was looking to see another soldier next to her, slightly ahead. At least they'd all made it. But where in the hell was the other soldier going?_

_"Stop! Turn around! Get back!" a stiff marine called through the comm, but the soldier ahead seemed to pay no heed. "Dammit - his helm-radio must be busted! Must've been busted when Richards got hit!"_

_"Where d'you think you're headed, private?!" yelled Meyers, but his cry only fell on the deaf ears of Miya, who was chasing after her teammate as fast as her legs could carry her. She barely spared a backwards glance at him as she kept on running, always nearing the soldier ahead of her._

_"Son of a bitch," she muttered as the sound of quickly pounding feet started up behind her - brilliant; the rest were after the two of them now._

_"Both of you stop immediately!" Meyers shouted after them, though it sounded rather faint, almost nonexistent, now that she was so far ahead. No wonder the man even farther up didn't hear._

_"Stop! There are charges buried up there!" shouted someone else. Miya felt a quick, painful feeling of dread shoot through her mind, and she urged herself to go even faster. She was almost a yard and a half away from the soldier now. She extended her arm and tried to snatch at the protective vest while trying to avoid tripping at the same time, but she was only just out of reach. She stumbled and clawed at him again; this time her fingers almost scraped against him, just barely missing him._

_"Wait!" she gasped, resisting the painful stings and screaming of her muscles to stop running, to rest, to no longer have to bear the weak feeling in her legs or endure the sharp burning in her lungs. She herself felt a slight tug at the back of her own vest. Dammit, Meyers!_

_She clawed at the soldier again, and this time his appearance flickered as her hand made contact with him; not only did this happen, but her hand passed through him. A hand grasped her wrist tightly and snatched her back in a quick, harsh motion as she was blinded by bright light. White shards erupted in front of her, then grew into large, red and orange plumes. Shattered bits of rock from the pavement flew past her head and knocked forcefully into her shoulder and multiple bits pounded against her stomach. Meyers dragged her back, wrapping his other hand around her chest and upper arms._

_"Are you okay?" he asked with a panicked note. "Not hurt, not dead?"_

_She looked up at him with eyes wide with terror. She gave him a small nod, shaking. She coughed violently as the thick pillars of smoke entered her still painfully stinging lungs, which longed for air._

_"Oh, thank God." His horror-stricken face tensed into a relieved expression before his eyebrows knitted together with rage. "THEN WOULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, PRIVATE?!" he shouted angrily into her ear. She flinched as her eardrums shook greatly with the volume of his raised voice._

_"He - he was - he was running toward the charges," she coughed. "You all saw him-"_

_"How did you not grasp that that... that thing... wasn't Parkinsons?!"_

_"I - what?! You all thought it was him, too!" She straightened up, shaking herself from the stern hold of Meyers. "And I wasn't about to shirk off a teammate!"_

_"Private T-"_

_"No! What did you expect me to do, let him run off to his death?"_

_"It was a trap," he said exasperatedly._

_"Well, suppose it HAD been Parkinsons, MEYERS. What if it had been? What'd you've done?" she poked him firmly in the chest, and he drew himself up, the dark gray eyes swirling with anger behind the transparent orange visor over them. The visible part of his face - his mouth and nose - contorted with dislike for her attitude._

_"I'm the leader or this squad, and I'd have done what it took."_

_"EXACTLY! So why are you pissed at me for trying-"_

_But he wasn't paying attention anymore. His eyes traveled upwards and widened with shock. His mouth hung open as he gaped at the sky._

_"The fuck are you looking at...?" she mumbled before slowly turning around and peering at the sky, and her mouth fell open as well._

_An enormous column of dark gray cloud ascended from a large building in the distance._

_"Guerra, what team is that?" Meyers asked sharply._

_"...That's Team Chariot, Sir..." the soldier replied in a hushed tone._

_"Let's go," Meyers commanded._

_"That's a helluva march, Lieuteniant," said Miya in an unsure voice._

_"Then we'd better start marching," he responded, jumping through the smoke and over the crater the charges had left._

**A/N: Yeah, I know... cliffhanger ending. Plus I have not updated in FOREVER! Yikes, it's been a long time (How have you been..? I think we can put our differences behind us... For science... you monster- sorry, needed to let the reference out ^w^). Decided to delve a bit into Alaska's past a little bit, and it'll be continued. Tell me if I should maybe write about the characters' pasts every few chapters to form the agents' backstories; I'll be working on Arizona instead of Miya after the next chapter, of this story, just a heads-up! Feel free to review! Over 3,000 words for a comeback, too!**


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